From High School to Badges
by The-Ell-Star
Summary: The Pokemon world is different. trainers have to attend school till the age of 15, where they can go on to their own journey. Follow the story of Ash and Dawn as they make their way through both School and their Journey.
1. Chapter 1: From friends to enemies

**Hey everyone its The-Ell-Star, and today I bring you my second story. A different change of pace from my first I know, but I really wanted to begin writing Pokemon fictions. Now some of you are probably thinking "Oh no, its another Pokemon high school story" Now at first this may be true, but its not just a high school scenario, as you'll see later. Oh, and a heads up, if you don't like anime characters having their 'cannon' Pokemon, you probably won't like this story. Also, there is strong language present. Anyways, enjoy "From High School to Badges"  
****Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, nor the characters involved.**

_"Man this week is going slow...then again it only tuesday morning so thats understandable I guess, though the less time I spend with the idiots in my school, the better" _A 15 year old, currently sitting in a classroom, thought to himself. He was around 5'8 ft, with jet black messy hair with a red hat perched on his head. His face was slightly tanned but very developed for his age, the same of course went his torso, though it was covered with a black polo shirt and a blue casual waist coat. He was also wearing light blue jeans and blue and black sneakers. On his waist, there was a black belt with two small cylinder shape objects, one red and white the other blue and white, with one on either side. He also had a green bag slumped on the back of his chair.

Just then, a series of names began listing themselves off, which was from a register for the lesson.

"May Mapple?"

_"Self absorbed tit, around my age somehow but doesn't act it, she got every guy pretty much falling for her, I don't see why since she has the personalty of a brick and all she ever cares about its being popular, 'cute things' and coordinating" _The boy thought to himself, before having vague memories of an incident that happened last year. He quickly shook it off as a reply came.

"Yes sir" May replied as if the teacher was a 6 year old. May was wearing a red bandana, a red blouse with white trimmings, considerably short biking shorts and red sneakers.

"Barry?"

_"Acts like he's four, how he ever managed to make it into high school I have no idea, one of the worst battlers in the school, yet he somehow ended up with the populars, or the 'battling elite' as they call themselves"_ The boy thought to himself yet again.

"Yes sir" A bored Barry responded. Barry was wearing a brown and white polo shirt, grey jeans and brown shoes.

"Ash Ketchum?"

_"Thats me, one of the more intelligent beings at this school. Im quite smart all around, and a relatively good battler, though I've never battled anyone here, not because i'm sacred, but because the other people at this school can't fight at my level. Thats not me being smug, they command their Pokemon like its their first battle. Oh, and I'm considered a 'loner' by everyone else in the school, but I don't care, nor do I care about my 'so called' ex friends, all I need is my Pokemon and I can accomplish anything. Thats how I've made my way through all my life pretty much" _The now named Ash thought to himself, but answering, "Here sir"

"Drew La Rose?"

Ash inwardly groaned _"Flirts with every, and I mean EVERY, girl in this school. He thinks he Arceus's gift to getting girls and battling, he may be with girls, but with battling no, I mean hell he doesn't know half of his Pokemon's moves. He's cocky and arrogant and expects everyone to do everything for him, kinda ironic his Pokemon are the same"_

"Here" The green haired male answered. He was wearing a purple shirt with a black undershirt (I'm not sure what you'd call it), green jeans and green sneakers.

"Misty Waterflower?"

Ash had to control himself from randomly shouting swears _"Ah yes Misty, my ex 'bestie' the whole cause for that incident last year, yet she still thinks i'm falling head over heels for her not matter how many times I correct her. She coordinates badly with her water Pokemon, which I find ironic given that my favourite type is water, i'm sure its just to give 'us' something in common"_

"Here" Misty called out in in a very light seductive voice, whilst looking at Ash. Ash just shuddered. Misty was wearing probably the most revealing clothes aloud in a high school: a very tight yellow tank top, considerably shorter shorts than May, and red converses.

The rest of the register continued like that with Ash given off reasons of why this person was a snob, plonker, twit or attention hogger, till the last name in the register was called out.

"Dawn Berlitz?"

Despite how acted the rest of register, Ash just couldn't bring himself to start the thinking process of her, probably because he knew very little about her. _"Yeah thats why" _Ash thought to himself. Dawn was wearing a black tank top that, thankfully, was less tight than Misty's, light blue jeans and purple converse.

"Alright my students, time for todays lesson, which is Physics" Everyone in the class groaned apart from Ash, who was a big fan of Physics. "I don't care wether you hate it or not, you have to learn it for later on in life. Now todays lesson is all about atoms, atom structure and radiation" And with that, the lesson began. Around half way into the lesson, Ash had completed all the work that was meant to take all lesson. Since he was done, the teacher let him do what ever he wanted for the reminder of the lesson. Thanking him, Ash pulled out a small notebook and began writing in it. He was writing his third chapter of a fan fiction he had created (Oh the irony) and was just about done when the bell went, signalling the change of lesson.

"Alright, your next lesson is Pe, make your way there and have a good day" The teacher spoke, before a loud noise of chairs moving and the students filtering out the classroom, making their way to the hall.

* * *

Pe in Ash's school was very unique, basically for most of the lesson the students could do whatever they want as long as it involved exercise of the use of Pokemon. The other part was battling. Basically, students names were picked at random, and those students could challenge anyone in the school to a Pokemon fight with any battle format. Somehow the populars got out of doing the first bit, and were allowed to sit on the bleachers that overlooked the battle zone.

With most students changed, they set about training themselves or Pokemon. Whilst many were doing simple exercises or training their Pokemon to learn pound, tackle or scratch, Ash sneaked his way out of one of the gym doors and into a grass courtyard that was invisible. Ash often went here for Pe, as to train his Pokemon in peace. He grabbed the two balls of his belt, and tossed them into the air whilst calling out "Pikachu" and "Mudkip" The two balls opened, and a white light escaped both balls. The first Pokemon released was a blue mud fish, with a blue fin on top its circular face and two orange star shaped gills on the cheeks on its face, with a large pale blue tail fin coming out of its small body. As it stood on all fours, Ash's second Pokemon was released. This Pokemon was small, yellow mouse with two pointy ears, a thunderbolt shaped tail, brown stripes on it's back and the unmistakeable red cheeks.

Both Pokemon gave their "Mud!" and "Pika" respectfully, before looking at Ash.

"Ok you two" Ash started, whilst crouching down to his Pokemon's level, "Today, we're gonna continue perfecting the electro shot move, ok?"

The two Pokemon cried in agreement, before getting into stances as if they were in an actual battle.

"Mudkip, begin charging Water Gun!" Mudkip complied, and began building up water in its small mouth. "Ok now release it! And Pikachu, Thundershock on the Water!" Mudkip released the stored water, and focused it into a single jet. Whilst Mudkip was doing this, Pikachu was charging electricity, and sent a Thundershock towards the jet of water. "Mudkip close your mouth and jump back!" It took Mudkip barely half a second to close its mouth and jump backwards. During this time, Pikachu's Thundershock had been conducted into the jet of water, resulting in electricity spiralling around the water, and traveled for barely a second before hitting a wall and dispersing into the air.

"Good job you two" Ash said to his two Pokemon, before con graduating them by scratching both Pokemon on there respective heads, and earned another "Mud!" and "Pika!" in the process. Ash was about to start thinking of other combos he could create with Mudkip and Pikachu, but a voice coming over the PA system prevented that.

"ASH KETCHUM MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BATTLE FEILD, YOU HAVE BEEN CHALLENGED TO A BATTLE!"

Ash was seriously confused by this, very rarely was he challenged, and when he was, he'd turn down the battle. In fact, he hadn't been challenged in serval months. He was considering just staying put, but when Ash looked over to his Pokemon, he saw looks that he'd seen often outside school, but very rarely in school. Fighting Spirt (If that is a look). Ash usually agreed with his Pokemon, but he was sceptical as to why they wanted to fight.

"Are you two sure you want to fight? If I'm being honest, you'd have harder fights with wild Pokemon than with who ever is challenging us" Ash explained, but Mudkip and Pikachu simply shook their heads and responded "MuMud!" and "PikaPikaa". Ash didn't like arguing with his Pokemon, and despite him thinking all the battlers couldn't battle, he decided to give Mudkip and Pikachu there battle, so he simply stated "Ok...lets go fight then". Both Mudkip and Pikachu cried in enjoyment, as Ash re-pulled out the two balls and returned Mudkip and Pikachu to them.

_"Right...Lets go see which terrible battler I'll be facing"_

* * *

The field was outside, and was really large considering the size of most people's Pokemon. It had a bleacher to one side, where the populars sat, and to the other, there was an electronic score board, which most of the time as the point system in mock constant battles. At the moment however, it had a roulette on screen, which had many different battle types.

Ash began his slow walk up to his end of the battle field, which gave him time to see who was on the bleachers. _"Misty...May...and Barry, among others...but no Drew it seems..." _And as Ash walked closer to his end, he understood why. His opponent was said green haired individual, and even though he was only standing, he looked as smug and arrogant as you can get.

"So you've actually showed up for one of battles huh, Ketchum?" Drew asked, but Ash didn't respond, as his attention was towards the roulette that had already spun and was coming close to stopping. When it did, Ash couldn't help but smile as he read what the match type was.

TWO ON TWO DOUBLE BATTLE

Drew noticed Ash's smile, and mockingly shouted "You think you can beat me? You've got no chance Ketchum!"

Again, Ash didn't respond to Drew comment, as he was only doing it to distract him from battling. A ref holding two flags came up to the side of the field under the score board.

"THIS WILL BE A TWO ON TWO DOUBLE BATTLE DREW LA ROSE AND ASH KETCHUM, BATTLERS ARE YOU READY?" Drew and Ash both nodded, and the ref continued "OKAY THEN, TRAINERS SEND OUT YOUR POKEMON!"

"SNIVY, STARLY, LETS BEAT KETCHUM TO A PULP" Drew called out as he threw two Poké balls into the air, and released a small green snake that had the same personalty as Drew, and a small bird that a had a white stripe going down its head. The bird flapped it wings to get into a ariel postion, whilst the snake just stood there, waiting.

"Ok you two, lets do this" Ash mumbled quietly to his Pokemon, even though they were inside there Poké and Great ball respectably. He grabbed his two balls and pressed the middle button to make them larger. "MUDKIP, PIKACHU, I CHOOSE YOU!" Ash shouted, as he threw the balls into the air, releasing the mud fish and electric mouse Pokemon. They both took up battle, and stared down Snivy and Starly.

"BEGIN!"

Drew made the first attack "Lets end this quick, SNIVY VINE WHIP MUDKIP!" Snivy obliged, and two small whips came from his body, and began traveling towards Mudkip.

"MUDKIP ICE SHARD THE VINES, PIKACHU QUICK ATTACK!" As Mudkip fired dozen's of small shards of ice towards the two vines, effectively pushing the vines back and leaving Snivy defenceless to saId shards, Pikachu charged forward with great speed towards Starly.

_"Rgh"_ Drew thought. Either way, one of his Pokemon was going to take a hit. "SNIVY DODGE LEFT!" Snivy barely dodged in time to avoid Mudkip's ice shard. However, Starly had no such command to dodge, and got slammed to the ground by Pikachu's quick attack.

"Rgh...FINE THEN! STARLY QUICK ATTACK, SNIVY TACKLE" Drew's two Pokemon charged at Ash's, one with slightly more speed than the other.

"PIKACHU DOUBLE TEAM! MUDKIP JUMP BACKWARDS AND USE WATER GUN!" Pikachu began to create many copies of itself to confuse the charing Starly. Whilst Mudkip jumped backwards to avoid Snivy's tackle and released a a burst of water that, despite not being very effective, did some damage to Snivy. Starly didn't know which Pikachu was the real Pokemon, so just went straight forward hoping that the one 'Pikachu' was the real one. It wasn't. Starly couldn't slow down fast enough, and went crashing into the battlefield.

"SNIVY STARLY RE-GROUP!" The already damaged Snivy and Starly returned to Drew's side of the field. Weirdly, Mudkip nor Pikachu where given a command to attack. "Okay, SNIVY LEECH SEED! STARLY GUST ON PIKACHU!"

As Snivy released dozens of small seeds towards Mudkip, Starly began whipping up a strong current and sent it towards Pikachu. Surprisingly, the seeds got caught up in the strong current, and it somehow created a small tornado. Ash was very shocked when he saw this. _"Bloody hell, he's actually done a combo move...if only by accident" _

"DEFENCE COMBO 1!"

Drew had no idea what this meant, but Ash's two Pokemon did. Upon hearing the command, Mudkip jumped onto Pikachu's back, and Pikachu began using quick attack in a circle. Mudkip used water gun in combination with Pikachu's quick attack, and a watery tornado was created. When the two tornados met, the seeds were quickly washed away by the water, and Starly's gust was canceled out. Mudkip and Pikachu stopped their combo and the watery tornado stopped.

_"Lets end this" _"MUDKIP, PIKACHU, ELECTRO SHOT!" As during the practice, Mudkip began charging water gun in it's mouth, and Pikachu began charging a thundershock. Mudkip released the charged water, and focused it to Snivy and Starly, and Pikachu released the thundershock. As soon as the thundershock conducted into the water, Mudkip jumped backwards and closed its' mouth, and the electric charged water went traveling for about two seconds before hitting both Snivy and Starly, creating smoke and dust in the process. Once it cleared, Drew's two Pokemon had swirls in their eyes, meaning they had fainted.

"SNIVY AND STARLY ARE UNABLE TO BATTLE! MUDKIP AND PIKACHU ARE THE WINNERS AND THE VICTORY GOES TO ASH KETCHUM!"

Saying everyone on bleachers was shocked is kinda a understatement. All of them had the mouths gapping open. They had just seen their 'best battler' defeated without the opponents Pokemon even taking one hit. Ash thanked his Pokemon, returned them to their respective balls, and left. As he did this, a certain blunette was deep in thought.

_"Wow...h..he lost to Ash..Drew lost to Ash!? And after he boasted how he was the best battler in this school and that Ash was a weakling, as well as some other offensive things...he got beaten so easily. Perhaps Drew was lying...perhaps they all were lying...I need to ask them wether they are telling the truth"_

The bell sounded, and took the blunette from her thoughts. _"I'll ask them at lunch"_

All the students re-changed into their normal attire, and made their way to various places for lunch.

* * *

As many of the students crowded into cafeteria, some made their way outside. Ash was with the latter, and was currently making his way to his 'secret spot' where no one could find him. It was near the back of the school field, surrounded by serval trees, and it was in such a position that he could see everything going on on the field and, somehow, inside the cafeteria to an extent. Luckily for Ash, it was really sunny today. As he sat down on the grass, he released Mudkip and Pikachu.

"Good work today you two, though I did say it wouldn't be much of a challenge"

Both Pokemon smirked, and cried out. "MuMudkip" "Pikaachu"

Ash smiled. "Yeah...I guess it was sort-of exciting"

"MudMud" "Pikapika"

"If you thought that was exciting, just wait till graduation, then we can fight real trainers and gym leaders and possibly get into the Indigo league"

Mudkip and Pikachu cried in agreement.

Ash laughed "I thought you two would say that, I wonder if Pidgey would agree" Both Pokemon nodded their heads. "We'll ask her when we get back, I'm sure she'd agree considering how much trust she has in us" Ash was about to continue that trail of thought, but a very loud slam, followed by "YOU'RE A MASSIVE SLUT!" broke him out of it. "What the hell was that?" Both Mudkip and Pikachu shook their heads in confusion. Another voice shouted out "YEAH, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO QUESTION MASTER DREW'S BATTLING ABILITIES!"

_"Someones very angry apparently"_

* * *

5 minuets earlier

Dawn Berlitz was walking into the cafeteria with her friends; Drew, Misty, May and Barry. Dawn was a relatively new student to school, having been transferred from a high school in Sinnoh due to family issues, not that she told anyone. Dawn was quite interesting, she liked coordinating like Misty and May, though wasn't as obsessed as those two, but she was also interested in battling like Barry and Drew. Because of this, she had a unique battling style, similar in a way to Ash's. Dawn is normally a shy girl, she didn't have many friends back in Sinnoh, yet she'd somehow ended up with the most popular kids in the school, and she had no idea why. Many of the students had guessed that either Drew or Barry liked her, and so brought her into the group just to ask her out.

The five found a table in the packed cafeteria, sat down, and began talking amongst themselves. But Drew wasn't talking, and Dawn took notice of it.

"Hey Drew?" Dawn whispered to Drew so only he could hear

"Yeah?"

"You ok? You seem out of it?"

"Im fine...don't worry" But Dawn could see he was lying

"Is it 'cause you lost to Ash?" Drew almost started raging at Dawn for asking that, but somehow kept his cool...just.

"No...of cause it isn't...and if you're wondering WHY I lost, its because I was going easy on him"

"You sure? To me he beat you pretty clea-"

"ALRIGHT DAWN THATS ENOUGH! JUST BECAUSE I LOST TO KETCHUM DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO QUESTION ME ABOUT IT!" Everyone in the cafeteria quietened down as Drew shouted at Dawn.

"I..im sorry" Dawn mumbled weakly "I..it..its just that, you keep going on about how you're the best battler, and today you lost to person you call the weakest trainer"

"Ohhhoho, this is priceless" Drew kept his angry expression, but sadisticness was creeping into his voice "Little miss Dawn has a thing for Ash...well you know what Dawn?" Drew slammed his fist down on the table, creating a loud slamming noise "YOU'RE A MASSIVE SLUT!"

Dawn was about to question why Dew was suddenly screaming in her face, but Misty, May and Barry stopped her. "YEAH,YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO QUESTION MASTER DREW'S BATTLING ABILITIES!" May pretty much screamed in Dawn's face.

"AND TO THINK WE LET YOU INTO OUR GROUP!" Misty, like May, screamed in Dawn's face.

"You know what Dawn? YOU ARE NO LONGER PART OF OUR GROUP!" Barry shouted.

Dawn was really close to just curling up into a ball and crying, she didn't understand why her friends were shouting abuse at her. Luckily, the bell went, signalling for students that the school day had ended. And surprisingly, her 'friends' seemed more interested in going home than continuing to scream abuse at her. Even more surprisingly, so did everyone else in the cafeteria, and before long, the cafeteria was empty, with not a single person coming up to her and asking her if she was ok. This made her feel insignificant, and her mind began to wonder back to her old life, and what happened with her parents. She somehow snapped out of it, and realised she'd been sitting in the empty cafeteria for serval minuets. She grabbed her bag, and quickly dashed out the room, hoping that tears would not fall.

They did.

**Well, that was the first chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. And I know someone is going to ask so I'll say now: "The Dark Descent" is not being cancelled, I will continue writing for it, I just want to have another project on the go so that I won't get writers block/board of writing. But thats about it, soo**

**See you next time**


	2. Chapter 2: A cliched encounter

**Hey everyone its The-Ell-Star, and I am back with the second chapter of "From High School to Badges". Sorry this chapter took a long time to get up. What with school work, exams and trying to solve a friends relationship, I've been rather stretched for time. Anyway, you came for the story, not me rambling, so on with the chapter!**

* * *

While most people would've gone tho their parents or guardians for help, Dawn didn't. After running out of the school, Dawn had found herself in the nearby park, under one of the trees, curled up with her knees in her face, crying. She could've gone to her mum, but Dawn had somehow learnt to deal with the problems herself, as back in Sinnoh her mum had enough problems with Dawn's dad leaving her without Dawn adding more. Because of this, Dawn dealt with her problems herself. Not by self harming or standing up (figuratively) but by becoming less and less involved with students, figuratively making her a ghost in her old school. Because no one actually knew her well after that, she didn't have to deal with all those problems.

Yet, she had made friends with the popular kids at this school. She told herself that she had learnt her lesson from last time not to make friends, especially with populars, yet this time she thought it would be different. She thought that perhaps she could break out of her state and start new...but no matter where you are, you will always be yourself.

_"Stupid Dawn...stupid stupid Dawn...how could you not realise never to do that ever again. Did you honestly think things would be different here?" S_he was so in warped with her thoughts that she didn't see or realise a lone figure slowly approaching didn't take long for the figure to standing above her, but Dawn failed to notice. Nor did she realise she had been in her current state for about two hours.

"Hello?" The figure spoke, trying to get her attention.

Nothing.

"Hello?" The figure leant down a bit, as if he was trying to direct his voice into Dawn's ear, hoping this would grab her attention.

Nothing.

"Hey?" The figure shook Dawn on her shoulders. This time achiving in grabbing her attention. Dawn's head slowly lifted out of her knees, and slowly turned her head left to see the person who brought her back to reality. He was around 5'8ft and was wearing a black polo shirt with a blue waist coat, blue jeans, blue and black sneakers and a red hat perched on top of the head. Although when Dawn noticed the brown eyes and jet black hair, she knew who her saviour was, and she wasn't too happy.

"Oh...it's you" Dawn spoke quietly, but venom was present in her voice. "What do you want? Came her to make fun of me I suppose?"

Ash, rather shockingly, shook his head. "If I was going to make fun of you, why would I go out of my way to come up to you first?"

"S..so you don't have to make up anything about this situation, so that everyone will make fun more?"

"You're not even making sense, surely a made up lie would prove more effective than the truth, considering the protest you would have"

Dawn couldn't come back to this. She knew now that Ash wasn't here to make fun of her, but then a thought came across her mind. _"If he's not here to make fun of me...why IS he here?"_

Dawn put her head back into knees as her next question came out. "So...why are you here?"

Ash smiled slightly. "I'm here to see whether you're ok or not, as cliched as that sounds"

"So why are you checking if I am ok" Dawn hesitantly asked, as she raised her head out of her knees.

"Because: A) A young girl is crying beneath a tree, B) The commotion at lunch , and C) The fact your friends with Drew. It doesn't take genius to put one and three together, but thats why I was checking if you were ok"

"Wait the commotion at lunch...how did you know about it? I looked around the hall before 'that' happened, and I didn't see you"

Ash smirked. "No, I was outside, you could hear it from there"

Dawns' eyes went wide. "Y...you could hear it f...from outside?"

Ash nodded. "Well yeah, I mean it is Drew we are talking about here. If you were that close to him whilst he was 'projecting' his voice, I'm kinda surprised you can still hear me though"

Dawn slowly formed a small smile, the first one since that 'incident'. "Heh...yeah I guess you're right about that"

Ash smiled softly, before asking a question of his own. "So may I ask, what did you do to make Drew angry?"

Dawn hesitated before answering "I..I questioned his battling ability...I mean after he lost to you I wondered whether he was telling the truth about his 'skills' so I asked him...and well the rest is common knowledge..."

Ash's face went from smiling to straight faced (Imagine Yu Narukami's normal straight face) "Seriously, he's still going on about it? I would've thought he'd stop by now"

At first, Dawn only registered Ash's response at face value. But once the words processed fully into her mind, she was shocked at what her mind realised Ash was saying. "You were close to Drew?"

"Yep, long time ago however, by which I mean about a year, though I'm kinda surprised your pretty little head didn't realise that sooner"

Dawns' cheeks turned a light shade of pink. _"W...wait why am I blushing!?" _She quickly shook her head before saying, "What do you mean by that? Sure Drew has gone on about you a few times..."

"A few?"

"Ok, A LOT of the time. But still I don't understand what you mea...Ohhhhhhh" As the clogs in Dawns' head clicked.

Ash smiled again. "If Drew hated me with out knowing me, he wouldn't go on about me. Hell, he'd try to avoid me and speaking about me at all cost. But because he did know me and he thinks what he's doing is affecting me, he will do that"

"I see now" Dawn nodded, but something popped into her mind. Something really, REALLY, obvious. "Wait...why I have been speaking to about these things even though you're not my friend?"

Ash smirked, almost like he had been expecting this question. "Because it is human logic. In ones' hour of need, if anyone shows/speaks/acts like they're gonna help, then they automatically trust them because they want so form of comforting" Ash explained, almost like he was some sort of wizard.

"Oh" Was all Dawn could reply with whilst she took in this information. "But wait, if this is human logic, then this has happened before. So isn't the conversation we just had cliched?"

Ash nodded "Yeah it is, almost as if someone was writing a fan-fiction"

Dawn chuckled at this "Yeah I guess it is"

Ash softly smiled. _"Keep her mind off of Drew and the incident" _"So Dawn...do you have any Pokemon on you at the moment?"

Dawn went wide eyed, again. "Oh god...I haven't sent out my Pokemon in a while. They're probably worried about me" Dawn said as pulled two Poke-balls of her waist and threw them into the air, releasing two white lights to which two Pokemon appeared in. One of the Pokemon was small blue penguin with a yellow beak and 'cuteish' face. The other was a brown rabbit with white looking fluff covering half of its body and childish black eyes. Both Pokemon's cried their respective "Piplup" and "BunBuneary" before rushing to their trainer to see whether she was ok.

Dawn smiled at this. "It's ok you two, don't worry about me" Dawn explained to her Pokemon, whilst they noticed Ash and looked wary at him, incase he had upset Dawn. "Don't be afraid you two, he's been helping me"

Dawn then turned her attention to Ash. "As I've shown you my Pokemon, why don't you show me yours?"

"Sure" Ash replied, whilst pulling a Poke and Great ball from his waist, and throwing them into the air. "You've seen Mudkip and Pikachu already" Ash said whilst Mudkip and Pikachu were released from their balls. "However...I don't think you've seen this one" Ash commented mysteriously whilst grabbing what looked a normal Poke-ball, but it had a small feather embedded onto it. Ash threw the ball into the air, releasing a white light, and another Pokemon appeared. The Pokemon was a small bird, with a cream body and brown wings. However, it looked like it had been 'glazed' to a have a tint of green. When the white light disappeared, and Dawn got a good look at the Pokemon, she gasped and put a hand over her mouth.

"T...th...Thats not a normal Pidgey..."

Ash smirked. "No it isn't, it's a shiny Pidgey. You can probably understand why I don't battle with her in school"

"Yeah no kidding" Dawn said in awe. "Wait...how did you meet this Pidgey?"

"Long time back..." Ash began to reminiscent. "I was training with Mudkip and Pikachu in the woods nearby, when I heard a load of commotion followed by a large bang. I went to see what was going on, with Pikachu and Mudkip, and what I came across was two poachers with two Houndours trying to capture a shiny Pidgey.

* * *

**(Flashback 4 years)**

Ash had just witnessed two Houndours, commanded by their poacher, use Flamethrower on the Pidgey. The Pidgey was able to dodge one Flamethrower, but got hit badly by the other. Satisfied that the Pidgey was damaged enough it couldn't cause a commotion or escape, the two poachers approached the damaged Pidgey with a cage, in an attempt to capture it. They were just about to catch it, when they were caught off guard by a voice...a very angry one.

"HEY!" An eleven year old Ash shouted at the two poachers. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

Once recovered, one of the poachers snorted at Ash and his comment. "Get lost kid" He said. "This here has got nothing to do with you"

"And I would suggest you do get lost, unless you want us to MAKE you get lost!" The other poacher added, indicating to the two Houndours.

_"Nope, not gonna happen" _Ash thought to himself, as he continued to stare down the two poachers.

Then, suddenly. "MUDKIP WATER GUN!"

As if on cue, the small mud fish Pokemon popped out of the foliage and shot a burst of water at the two Houndours. While this didn't knock them out, it did stun them, something Ash was hoping for.

"Now Pikachu, SHOCK WAVE!"

Again on cue, the small electric mouse Pokemon jumped out of the folige and sent a strong wave on electricity towards the two Houndours. Not only would this attack hit, the water still dripping off the two Houndours would increase the power of the shock wave when it came into contact. Non surprisingly, this knocked out the two Houndours, and left two very shocked (Not pun intended) poachers wondering what just happened.

"I would suggest you leave now" Ash ordered. "Unless you want me to MAKE you leave"

The poachers, who were grumbling in defeat, returned their respective Houndour and quickly left, not wanting to receive a beating from Ash's two Pokemon. With the two poachers dealt with, Ash turned his attention to the Pidgey. It looked like it was still badly damaged from trying to escape from the poachers, and considering its most recent encounter with humans, it wouldn't appreciate him marching up to it to check whether it was ok. Ash noticed, coincidentally and luckily, an Oran berry bush close to where he was currently standing. Not wanting to provoke the bird, Ash got down onto all fours, and crept as silently as possible to the Oran berry bush. Once he reached there, he plucked serval Oran berries from said bush, and then began making his way towards Pidgey, making sure the Oran berries were shown at all times so that the Pidgey had a vague understanding of what Ash was doing.h

Ash managed to get to the Pidgey, and fed it a few of the Oran berries. While this didn't heal the birds wounds completely, it did help relive some of the pain. Whilst Ash was feeding the bird, Mudkip and Pikachu began chatting amongst themselves, something Pidgey took notice of.

_"Wow...those two Pokemon look happy...and safe...like this human takes great care...with his Pokemon...and the way they took out those two Houndours...he must train them well..." _The Pidgey thought to itself, and then it noticed the human feeding her had a Poke-ball strapped on the waist. When the human tried to feed her, she side stepped and indicated at the Poke-ball.

"Hmm...?" Ash saw the Pidgey pointing at something on his waist, and then realised what it was. "Wait...you want me to catch you?" The Pidgey simply nodded. Not wanting to disappoint any Pokemon, Ash pulled the Poke-ball of his waist, enlarged it, and held it out in front of Pidgey. The Pidgey tapped her head against the ball, disappeared into the ball, and didn't shake indicating the capture. After picking up the ball, Ash called out to his other two Pokemon. "Mudkip, Pikachu. We have a new team member!"

* * *

"After that, Pidgey became a great team member and a great addition to the team. She gets on well with Mudkip and Pikachu, but is still shy around other humans that she doesn't know. " Ash explained, as Pidgey perched on his head, keeping a wary eye on Dawn.

Dawn didn't know what to say after Ash's story. After the battle today, Dawn didn't think Ash cared about his Pokemon. Considering that his Pokemon obeyed without hesitation, she thought Ash tortured his Pokemon. But after hearing the story about his Pidgey, she had knew that her initial thought was wrong. She was still in thought when Ash spoke.

"It's getting dark, aren't your parents worried about you being out this late?"

Dawn's eyes widened. "Oh god you're right" She hastily returned Piplup and Buneary before getting up. She was about leave, but she turned to face Ash. "Hey...thank you for that...it...cheered me up...I hope I can see you again..." Dawn spoke while giving Ash her sincerest smile.

Ash smiled as well "Don't worry about it, though do say if Drew and his friends start anything. I'm in both of your lessons tomorrow."

Dawn nodded. "Ok, thank you again" And with that, Dawn ran off home.

Ash waved Dawn good bye, then turned to his Pokemon. "Soo...what do you think of Dawn?"

The Pokemon chirped happily, which caused Ash to smile.

"Me too"

* * *

**Again, sorry for the late delay. This also brings up a point I will address, exam season is almost upon me, so my time will be spent on exams, rather than writing chapters. So there will probably be a long delay between this chapter and the next. In the mean time, I want to get you, the readers, involved with this story. So here's what can be done:  
If you want to suggest a Pokemon for any of the mentioned characters, you may do so (bonus points if you give a short back story) and if I like that suggestion, I'll use that Pokemon in the story and mention the readers name who suggested that Pokemon.**

**See you next time **


	3. Chapter 3: Double battle

**Hey everyone it's The-Ell-Star and my god it has been a while. Sorry its taken two months for this, as I mentioned before exam season came up and all my attention was devoted to that. Hopefully updates will be more frequent...hopefully. I still have 3 more exams before I'm officially done with exams for one year. Still, I present you with Chapter 3 of "From High School to Badges". Heads up, theres a 'violent' scene in this chapter so you have been warned.**

* * *

The term was almost over for both Ash and Dawn: this was lucky as Dawn wouldn't have to deal with Drew, Barry, May or Misty throughout the duration of the week and a bit holiday. And for Ash...it meant he could spend more time with his Pokemon. With the addition of this being the duo's last holiday before they left school, it also provided extra time to begin revising before the exams were thrown onto them. Before that, they had one last day in school before the break.

Ash's day began like any other, in a lesson with other kids complaining about why they had to do this whilst Ash thought about each one as either a snob, plonker, twit or attention hogger. _"De Ja Vu huh" _Ash thought to the teacher set the work, and when the kids began complaining more, Ash simply rolled his eyes and started the work that the teacher had set. It was Math, Trigonometry and 3D Pythagorus. Ash understood it well and was about to start bulldozing his way through the questions, but a soft voice, one Ash wasn't used to in lessons, stopped him.

"Ash...do you think you could help me? I'm not that good with Trigonometry."

Ash turned his head to see who had asked for his assistance, and was surprised to see it was Dawn. She was wearing a blue polo shirt, black jeans and purple converse. Moreover, she was sitting next to him. Ash was about question why Dawn was sitting next him, and not sitting where she sat last Math's lesson, but then he realised there was no seating plan for any lessons so anyone could sit anywhere. Plus...after yesterday's incident, it was understandable that Dawn wouldn't want to sit by herself, and instead took refuge near the one who offered support when she needed it the most. _"How could I forget?__" _Ash thought to himself, before replying to Dawn's question. "Yeah, of course I'll help"

"A..are you sure?" Dawn asked again shyly. "I don't want to slow you down or anything..."

"Don't be daft" Ash spoke,

"Thank you" Dawn smiled as she spoke.

For the next hour and a half, Ash was going through all the questions slowly with Dawn, to make sure she understood them. And though she seemed a bit hopeless starting off, by the end of the questions, Dawn had mastered Trigonometry. Dawn thanked Ash for helping her, and straight after, the bell went, signalling the start of next lesson. Ironically, the next lesson was Pe, and Ash's mind began to wonder whether he'd be challenged again. _"It wouldn't surprise me, I'm half expecting an attempt of revenge from Drew." _Ash again thought to himself whilst making his way to Pe.

* * *

As with yesterday, after getting changed, Ash made his way to his secret spot leaving Dawn to wonder where he was. Not that she was too worried, unlike yesterday she was training with her Piplup on the target range. Dawn had heard a couple of people murmur about yesterday, but it was more gossip than accusation. Never the less, Dawn tried not to pay attention to it, and instead focus more on her Piplup's bubble beam accuracy. Ash was were he normally was, training his two Pokemon in peace outside in the courtyard. He had Pikachu and Mudkip with him, and was trying to think of new combos for those two Pokemon.

30 minuets of the lesson had gone by, and there wasn't much left as this was the last lesson of term. Dawn was still training her Piplup, and Ash his two Pokemon. But an announcement stopped both in their tracks.

"ASH KECTHUM AND DAWN BERLITZ MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE BATTLEFIELD!"

Dawn immediately began panicking. _"Oh no...Oh no...I don't want to battle...I don't like battling in front of people..." _

"Pip Piplup?" Dawn's small penguin Pokemon had stopped training after he realised that his mistress was panicking. He wanted to make sure she would be fine and so rushed up to comfort her.

"I..I'm o..ok Piplup...No need to worry..." Dawn tried to reassure her Pokemon, but no amount of reassuring could alter the fact that she had to battle.

"Pip Pip" Though Piplup wasn't entirely convinced, he accepted what Dawn had said. He tugged at her leg, indicating for her to go to the battlefield. Dawn sighed, and spoke with a shaky voice.

"Ok...let's go.."

And with that, Dawn returned Piplup to his Poke-ball, and made her way to the battlefield.

(With Ash)

"OH COME ON!" Annoyance and anger crept their way into Ash's voice. Yet another person was challenging him. "Did they not see what happened yesterday? Do they expect it will be different? This time I'm not going."

But once again, Mudkip and Pikachu chose otherwise. They both cried, gaining Ash's attention, and showed him the fighting spirt from yesterday. They wanted a battle.

Ash pinched his nose, between his two eyes, and sighed in defeat. He let out a small grumble. "...Fine..." He already knew what was coming, he didn't bother arguing with his Pokemon, not that he liked arguing with them. "Ok you two...let's go..." Ash said whilst returning Mudkip and Pikachu to respect Poke-ball, and reluctantly made his way to the battle field.

* * *

Ash arrived at the battlefield first, and as soon as he began walking to the edge of the marked out battlefield, everyone in the bleachers quieten down. _"Odd...they normally continue talking until the battle starts...I wonder wh.." _Ash began thinking, until he saw who his opponent...well opponents were. _"Oh it's Drew and May...Why am I not surprised?...Wait is this a handicap match?" _Ash then looked over to the score board and read what it said.

TWO ON TWO DOUBLE BATTLE

_"Oh great, I get to have an incompetent partner in a battle against two incompetent idiots...why not go for the full monty and have an incompetent ref as well."_

Ash's train of thought was cut short by the sound of footsteps echoing behind him, everyone in the bleachers had now gone completely silent. _"Oookkk this is a bit creepy." _Ash thought to himself whilst turning his head round to see his battle partner, which was Dawn. _"Ok...dunno whether I should've seen that coming or not." _Ash began regretting what he just thought of his 'incompetent' battle partner, mainly because he had never seen her battle before, and in a way he was kinda looking forward to see and battle with her, though he wouldn't admit that. Though from Dawn's body language, Ash could tell something was up. She was standing next to Ash, with one hand holding the other, and was looking at the floor.

"Hey..you ok?" Ash whispered quietly to Dawn. Her head turned quickly, as if she had been spooked, and her eyes were full of worry.

"N...no I..I d..do..don't l...lik..like battling in..in front of p..pe..eople" Dawn mumbled weakly. She considered lying, but Ash could read her well so it would be worthless.

"Don't worry about it, just go out and go for it, even if you end up looking like an idiot"

Neither got a chance to say anything else as the ref was under the score board and shouted out: "THIS IS A TWO ON TWO DOUBLE BATTLE BETWEEN THE TEAM OF DREW LA ROSE AND MAY MAPPLE, AND THE TEAM OF ASH KETCHUM AND DAWN BERLITZ. DREW AND MAY SEND OUT YOUR POKEMON!"

drew arrogantly grabbed a Poke-ball, enlarged it, and threw it into the air. May had followed suit with her release. "SNIVY!" "TORCHIC!" drew and May had released the respective pokemon, the green snake and the small oragne chick.

Ash immediately grabbed Mudkip's Great-ball. Dawn had Piplup's ball in hand, but saw that her partner had gone with his water type. She quickly clipped back on her water types' ball, and was about to grab Buneary's ball, but a voice stopped her. "If you want to use Piplup that is fine. Go after the Torchic. I will deal with the Snivy" Whilst anyone else would've doubted Ash's logic, Dawn had seen him battle and knew he knew what he was doing.

With Piplups ball in hand once more, the team of Ash and Dawn sent out their Pokemon. "MUDKIP I CHOOSE YOU!" "PIPLUP TAKE THE STAGE!" The small mudfish and equally small blue penguin were released and stared down their opponents. She didn't know why, but Dawn's nervousness and sacredness had been replaced with adrenaline.

The match was about to begin, the two teams were staring each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move. The tension was high. But the ref had one more thing to say. "As this is the last battle of term, it has been decided that this battle will have NO MOVE POWER RESTRICTIONS!"

Everyone on the bleachers went wide eyed. Dawn's adrenaline dropped and was replaced with nervousness. May's reaction was similar to Dawn's, although she tried to hide and did so badly. Drew just had a cocky smirk on his face. And Ash had his ever still face, but with one thought in his mind. _"Well this just got interesting"._

"MATCH BEGIN!"

"SNIVY LEAF TORNADO!" Drew ordered quickly, hoping to take advantage of the situation. Snivy began gathering floating leaves and spinning them around him, before sending them straight towards Mudkip.

"MUDKIP ICY WIND!" Unfortunately for Drew, Ash wasn't that fazed by the move power limit removal announcement. As shown by Mudkip's orange gills twitching, before opening his mouth and emitting an barley visible icy breath. The icy breath came into contact with the leave tornado, freezing them and forcing them to the ground with a loud thud, useless.

May followed up that attack. "TORCHIC SCRATCH " The small chick began a dash towards, surprisingly, Piplup.

Despite her nervousness, which was slowly dying down, Dawn got a command out. "P..PIPLUP USE BU...BUBBLE BEAM. HOW WE PRA...PRACTICED!" Piplup took the command, and began charging up bubbles in his mouth. The move went unnoticed to May, but Drew saw the danger.

_"Time to silence another penguin." _"SNIVY AERIAL ACE!" Snivy began a fast dashing toward Piplup, with what looked like air flow passing around its nose. Piplup saw Snivy coming out of the corner of his eye, and knew he'd had no chance if both got close enough. Luckily, his concerns was put to rest.

"MUDKIP AQUA JET!" Snivy's Aerial ace may of been fast, but Mudkip's Aqua jet was faster. It took barely a second for Mudkip to be a Snivy's side, before slamming into Snivy with his entire body and surrounding water. The force flung Snivy into the air doing a flip, before hitting the ground with a very loud "THUD"

With Snivy out of the picture for now, Piplup finally released the Bubble beam onto Torchic. The practice on the target range paid off, as Piplup landed the attack squarely on Torchic, with only a few bubbles missing. Though not in the spectacular fashion that was Snivy, Torchic taking the brunt of the attack was forced back. And ended up in roughly the same place as Snivy. Both Torchic and Snivy were looking pretty worse for wear. Despite that, they both managed to get up, slowly, and stared down their opponents once more.

_"We need to keep Mudkip busy...so that we can focus on Piplup" _Drew looked across to May and shot her a look, then indicated his head to Dawn. May wasn't telepathic, but she understood what Drew meant...at least she hoped she understood. Drew made his command, "SNIVY LEAF TORNADO MUDKIP"

Snivy nodded, before once again gathering floating leaves around his body, spinning them and firing them at Mudkip. Ash wasn't impressed.

"MUDKIP COUNTER WITH ICY BREATH THEN FOLLOW UP WITH AQUA JET" Mudkip's gills began twitching again, and let out the icy breath. The storm and breath came into contact with each other again, cancelling both moves. Mudkip then enveloped his body with water and began charging/flying (I dunno what the verb is for a Pokemon doing aqua jet is) at Snivy.

"WAIT TIL IT GETS CLOSE THEN DODGE WITH TACKLE" Snivy literally stood still, waiting for Mudkip to get closer to him. When Mudkip was about to connect, Snivy activated tackle whilst dodging to the left. The tackle gave Snivy the extra acceleration to dodge the high speed aqua jet.

"MUDKIP FOLLOW IT UP AGAIN" Mudkip did a half loop spiral, before charging/flying at Snivy again.

"SAME AS BEFORE SNIVY" Snivy waited till the last second, then dodge tackled out of the way.

_"So the one combo Drew has actually thought up involves his Pokemon running away...can't say I'm surprised"_

* * *

Whilst Drew preoccupied Mudkip, May set her sights on Piplup. "TORCHIC GET IN CLOSE WITH QUICK ATTACK" Torchic nodded before begining yet another dash towards Piplup. Dawn realised she was in a similar situation a few minuets ago, so her nervousness had died down.

"PIPLUP P..POUND" The penguin Pokemon's right fin glowed white, before he charged forward at Torchic. Both Pokemon were closing in closer and closer, until Piplup jumped high and swung his fin down at Torchic. However, thanks to quick attack, Torchich managed to get behind Piplup without him even realising.

"EMBER NOW" Torchic released dozens of small fiery embers at Piplups back, which dealt some damage. The force of the ember forced Piplup forward and his face face-palmed into the ground. "FOLLOW UP WITH INCINERATE" Torchich then released a quite powerful fire shot at Piplup, who had no chance of dodging the attack. Despite Piplup resisting fire type attacks, the Incinerate caused major damage to the Penguin, leaving him with serval burns in the process.

"FINISH IT WITH METAL CLAW" Dawn knew that if this move connected, Piplup would pretty much be down and out. "PIPLUP PLEASE DODGE" As much as Piplup wanted to, the incinerate previously used had caused injuries to Piplup, pretty much negating any chance of Piplup's body be able to move, let alone dodging. Torchic's talon claws glowed grey, almost like they were metallic, and walked up to the downed penguin. Piplup had managed to turn himself around, so that his face was no longer in the ground, but this of course left a 'weak spot' for Torchic to exploit.

Torchic had strutted her way up to Piplup, who didn't realise how close Torchic was until a talon came slamming down onto his body. Piplup flinched violently and his entire body seemed to buckle under Torchic. He looked up, only to see Torchic staring him, eye to eye, with a demonic look, before raising her left talon and swiping it across his face. Piplup cried out in pain, but somehow manage to survive that hit. Dawn's mind went blank, but she was on the verge of collapsing to the floor and crying at the sight of seeing her starter Pokemon getting brutally attacked whilst knowing she could not do anything to stop it. (mind blank + nervousness = forgotten move set)

May on the other hand was lapping it up and was laughing manically at the sight of this. Even Drew casted a look over and laughed, but this costed him as Snivy was finally hit by Mudkip's aqua jet and sent sprawling on the floor. Piplup again looked up, only now he looked very weak, and was once again met with the demonic eyes of Torchic, waiting for her master to give the final move.

"TORCHIC FINI-" The command never came.

"MUDKIP WATER PULSE" Torchic turned her head, to where she hoped Mudkip would be, but was instead greeted with serval circular water pulses that sent her flying into the air and crashing down to the ground. "AQUA TACKLE!" Mudkip combined the power of aqua jet and tackle and propelled himself straight at Torchic, who had barely enough time to get up before being smashed back into air, and crashing into the ground.

She was out.

This left Snivy, who was still recovering after being hit from Mudkip's attack. "ICE SHARD" Mudkip released dozens of small, fast moving ice pieces at Snivy, who much like Torchic, barley had time to register the attack before receiving the brunt. Even Drew couldn't do anything at this point. "NOW BITE" Mudkip lunged himself at Snivy and latched his mouth onto the green snake's body, who cried out in pain much like how Piplup did.

"FINISH IT!" Mudkip released his grasp before springing back and firing another ice shard. Snivy stood no chance and fainted as soon as the attacked connected.

"TORCHIC AND SNIVY HAVE FAINTED AND ARE UNABLE TO BATTLE. THE WINNERS ARE MUDKIP AND PIPLUP."

The crowd once again were rendered speechless. Most were sure Drew and May would surely win, despite witnessing Drew's uter defeat yesterday. Ash, Drew and May recalled their Pokemon, with Ash thanking his. Dawn however, rushed onto the battlefield and grabbed the battle weaken Piplup in both arms, cradling him. " you ok ?"Piplup looked over to see Dawn, with a very concerned look on her face and serval tears falling down her face. He was able to nod his head and let out a weak cry "Pi..Piplup" Dawn brought the penguin closer to her and tightly hugged him, more tears escaping her face.

Dawn felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Ash's face, who silently gestured for them to leave and get changed. Dawn got up, whilst still cradling Piplup, and left with Ash following closely behind her.

* * *

**Well that was chapter 3. As I mentioned with Chapter 2, I'm still accepting ideas for Pokemon for each trainers team. Plus, you might be seeing another Pokemon story based off my experience off a Platinum Wedlock (shudders) Anyway thats it for now;**

**See you next time.**


	4. Chapter 4: Words of Wisdom

**Hey everyone it's The-Ell-Star and I've updated on time for once, last month was chapter 3 and this month is chapter 4- huh?(whispers)...The month? Its June isn't it? (Whispers) No? August then... (whisper whisper) ...It's November?(whisper)...  
Oh god I am so sorry. In all seriousnesses, I was planning to have a chapter up in August/September time, not November. Then again it could be worse. If you're wondering why this has taken so long, I only to have to say 2 words and most people will understand: Collage work. It probably doesn't help i've taken four hard subjects. Anyway, on with the chapter.**

As soon as Dawn and Ash were out of the gym, with Piplup still in Dawn's arms, she made a dash towards the infirmary. She was so wrapped up in getting to the infirmary, she didn't hear Ash call out to her repeatedly. It wasn't a long dash mind you, considering that sometimes Pokemon got badly hurt during battles, the infirmary was close to the battle field, so Dawn's dash only lasted for 2 corridors and 1 flight of stairs. She bursted into through the door and handing the nurse (nurse Joy) her Piplup, and though the gash on Piplup's face and injuries looked severe, the nurse informed Dawn that she would only need to give Piplup some medicine (and plenty of rest) and he should be fine. Breathing a sigh of relief, Dawn left the room to let the nurse deal with Piplup's medicine and took a seat outside. It didn't take long for the bluenette to begin day dreaming about a certain battle that took place a few minuets prior.

_'How could of I done that" _Dawn began thinking, a few tears threatening to break out from her eyes.'

_'Damn my bloody nervousness, I made myself look like an idiot in front of everyone and I let my Pokemon down as well...'_

A few tears started to seep out of Dawn's eyes and down her cheeks.

_'I...I hope Piplup's ok.k..' _

With that thought the few dripping tears soon turned into a cascade. Dawn couldn't help it, she had just witnessed her loyal starter Pokemon get hammered in a battle to a Pokemon who had a type disadvantage. And though her thoughts were just on the battle, her mind involuntary began bringing up her painful and dark past.

_'Weak...Pathetic...Useless...'_

She didn't even know why her mind did this to her, it would always do it however after things like that battle happened.

_'Slut...Waste of Space...You should be Reduced to Nothingness..'_

Of course Dawn's reaction to these thoughts were split, in public places she would fight to hold back those tears lest she gets anymore abuse for it. In situations like where she currently found herself however, she would just let those tears fall, there was no need to fight them back since no one was witnessing them. The tears kept falling, and despite being like this numerous times, each time would hurt more and more. There was nothing more Dawn could do but lay her head in her lap and let the tears fall.

* * *

"_sigh_ Why'd she have to run off like that?" Ash asked Mudkip, who was currently in ash's arms and being held up like a baby.

"Mud MudKip"

"I know that her Piplup got injured, but at the very least she could've gotten her stuff FIRST before dashing off like that?"

Mudkip shook his head. "Mud Mud Mudkip"

"If you were injured yes I would heal you first, but unless I suddenly grew blue hair and you fins and a beak, you can't use that"

Mudkip just laughed, and Ash rolled his eyes.

"End of discussion" Ash said, whilst almost toppling over. Carrying two backpacks at once whilst having a Pokemon in your arms wasn't the easiest thing to do, though somehow Ash had managed it with only a few close calls.

It took a while until Ash made it close to the infirmary, but as he came closer and closer, he heard a continuos muffled sound, that after a bit Ash realised was crying.

_'Shit'_

* * *

10 seconds later, Ash was outside the infirmary, and the sight wasn't a nice one: Dawn currently had her head in her lap with the crying sound coming from her. Ash dropped both bags and rushed over to Dawn.

"DAWN!?"

Dawn slowly lifted her head out of lap, which was now covered in fresh and dried tears, and looked at Ash. "..Ash.?"

"DAWN" Ash looked at Dawn with worry in eyes, before taking a seat next to her. "Are...you ok? What happened?"

Dawn stared blankly at Ash before stating the obvious "Does..it look like I'm ok?"

Ash merely chuckled "No, I guess is shouldn't of asked"

Dawn smiled softly before sighing "..It's my fault Piplup's in there, if I didn't freeze up he wouldn't be in there.."

Ash looked concerned after Dawn said this. "Dawn...you can't blam-"

"But I can ASH, if Piplup had a better trainer, one that was actually competent in battling, he wouldn't of received those injuries. Hell he'd probably came out of that...unscathed..I-i'm...I'm.." Dawn just completely broke down at this, well, as breaking down as you can get given whats happened prior. Her head flopped into her lap again, but unlike last time she began shaking with all the crying.

To say Ash was worried at this sight...was a giant understatement.

"DAWN?" "DAWN?" "DAWN?" To no avail, Dawn was not responding. Ash got up of his chair and tried shaking her, nothing. Poking her, nothing. Shouting closer to her ears, nothing. As much as he could've asked Mudkip to use water gun, he decided against guessing Dawn wouldn't be amused at having water sprayed at her. With pretty much all options out , Ash's mind came up with one last idea.

_'..Crazy...but I'm outta options and it might just work'_

He leaned in closer on Dawn, so that his mouth was millimetres away form her ear. "Dawn...listen to me" he whispered, not wanting to hurt her eardrums "Dawn...as weird as this is gonna sound...can you stand up?" Ash wasn't expecting anything, but he was surprised to see Dawn slowly rise onto her feet, apparently she had heard. Ash wasted no time in wrapping two arms around her, one around her shoulder and across her back, the other pressed against the back of her head, moving her head onto his shoulder. All the while Dawn was still producing tears.

"Shh..Shhhhh" Ash tried to make soothing noises to calm the shaking women down. It was working as the crying sound was slowly dying down and the violent shaking stopped.

_'Words of wisdom time I guess"_

"You can't blame yourself for what happened in that battle" Dawn's head slowly moved so she was looking at Ash, who had a compassionate look on his face, "Being good at battling doesn't come overnight, it takes time to become good with even the basics of battling." Ash looked down onto Dawn "Look at me, I don't want to sound big headed, but my skills with battling didn't come overnight." Ash paused before continuing "If anything, most of the time I was bonding with my Pokemon, my friends...Battling isn't all about brute strength you know, or getting a whitewash win." Ash closed his eyes "You may not even want to to do battling, you may be more interested in contests, you won't unless you've tried..."

Dawn let his words sink into her brain, somehow his words had calmed her down to the point that tears stopped flowing, and his sage advice made her have a completely different look on the battle. Dawn released the embrace with Ash and sat back down, staring at the bare wall across from her. Ash did the same, but said nothing. It was obvious Dawn was contemplating the words Ash had just spoken. Ash just sat there, not wanting to distract Dawn by saying anything, though Mudkip jumped up into his arms, and snuggled up to him. The duo, or trio, sat in silence for a while, that was of course until Dawn quietly mumbled something.

"Thank you..."

"Hmm..?" Ash looked at Dawn who was staring out into space, until she turned her head to look at him, giving a small smile.

"I said thank you you deaf idiot"

"Oh n-Wait Deaf Idiot?" Ash's reaction to being called an idiot was utterly priceless, Dawn started giggling and laughing uncontrollably at this sight.

"In...all...seriousness...though" Dawn said in between laughs, finally starting to calm down. "Thank you for telling me that, and for being here for me. You seem to have a habit of doing that with me huh?" Ash simply nodded, recalling the prior days events as if it only happened a few hours ago.

"It's not problem Dawn"

Dawn gave a small nod and a smile, but before she realised it she had her head resting against Ash's shoulder, and was a bit shocked when she realised her body moved without commanding it. Ash too was surprised at her actions, though he didn't complain. And going by her earlier actions, he guessed that she needed a bit more comforting, reassurance. So, he did the only thing he could in his position, slowly moved his arm across Dawn's back and onto her shoulder, and placed a reassuring hand on it. Dawn didn't mind it one bit, actually, she quite liked it, much the hug she received earlier.

The trio sat there in silence once more, with Mudkip still in Ash's lap, Dawn with her head on Ash's shoulder, and Ash with an arm wrapped around her. To anyone who didn't know these two, nor what had just happened to Dawn, they could mistake this scene for a young family touching moment. But alass, all things must come to an end, and in this situation, that came from the infirmary door opening and a certain small blue penguin waddling out followed by nurse joy.

"Pip Piplup!"

"Piplup?" Dawn jumped out of her seat, before embracing her starter Pokemon in a tight hug. "Oh thank goodness you're ok"

"Pip..pip..lup"

"I'm not sure how Piplup recovered so quickly" Nurse joy said to Ash, as Dawn was still embracing Piplup. "I gave him the treatment and he had some rest, though he woke up earlier than anticipated. He should be fine though, just make sure he doesn't do anything too strenuous for a couple of days" Dawn nodded her head indicating she had heard. With that nurse joy returned to her room, leaving the now four alone.

"Told you he'd be fine" Dawn stuck her tongue out at Ash, to which Ash chuckled at, before standing up and glancing at a convient clock on the wall. "Come on, everyone else would've left by now" Dawn looked up at the clock and nodded in agreement.

"Come on Piplup lets go home"

"Pip pip piplup"

**Short chapter today, sorry for those expecting/wanting longer. I think the reason is wanting to get a chapter out, hell I'm pleased to get more than 1k words to be honest. Before I leave, I would like to address something, From High School to Badges will not turn into a nuzlocke story. The nuzlocke story may come later based of my Platnium nuzlocke(wedlocke) run (still shuddering). Oh and rating has changed to an M now (wether i'm going in the right direction I have no idea, I'll find out soon enough:**

**Anyway, see you next time  
**


	5. Chapter 5: Study session

**Hello everyone, its me, The-Ell-Star. I'm really sorry for how long this has taken to come out. Again, college work is still piling up. For anyone that is interested in this, I passed my first year in all 4 subjects, and against many teachers recommendations, I have continued doing the 4 into my second and hopefully finale year. Now there are quite a few reasons for this being delayed, obviously the BIG one I've just explained. I had started writing this back in September/October last year. Then November hit...dear lord was that a game changer. Fallout 4 took up so much of my time, even now I'm still playing it. December rolled around, and thanks to PS Plus, I was devoted to Freedom Wars. This month mocks happened, and I finally got my hands on a copy of Persona Q, and boy is it great. Again, I'm sorry this took so long to write/upload.**

**But anyway, on with the chapter!**

* * *

It was currently Monday of the students half term. Most, if not all, of the students had been partying the weekend before. It was tradition, or so the students would say, or at least the populars would. They'd party for the weekend, then spend the rest of the week revising, although some hadn't even started yet and others could not care and wouldn't bother at all. As you could probably guess, Ash didn't have any involvement with this. Parties weren't his style, he wasn't one for social gatherings, seeing them as nothing more than an obsolete activity. It was more as a benefit that he could not run into Drew and his mob of idiots, as they would often party their asses off, which meant he wouldn't have to put up with their idiocy. As for his revision, he had been prepping all year so he didn't need to spend all his time this half term hitting the books, sure he would do some last minute stuff just to make sure he was ready, but all in all, he felt confident.

Currently, Ash had just woken up from sleep. A beam of light had snuck by his curtains and landed on his face, causing the teen to rise from his slumber in mild annoyance. He glanced over at his clock, which sat upon his bed side table, which showed the time of 7:48 AM. Surprised as he generally didn't wake up before 9 AM, Ash returned his head to his pillow, deciding whether or not he should get up or try to go back to sleep. He finally decided to get up, seeing there no harm in getting up early on a non-school day for once. As he was pulling away his duvet, he glanced over to the other side of his room, where his Pokemon were currently snoozing. Mudkip and Pikachu were curled up in the respected beds, and Pidgey was asleep standing up on a bird pole.

Deciding not to wake them just yet, Ash crept quietly into his en-suite bathroom. Ash's parents were quite well off, thanks to mum running a daycare centre in a region called Hoenn, and his dad who was once a skilled and famous trainer. Although Ash hadn't seen his dad in ages due to work related stuff, he would always make sure his son and wife were looked after. The en-suite wasn't a grand affair, no diamond encrusted wall mirrors or bathtubs made out of solid gold, but it had everything Ash would need: sink, toilet, shower and a cabinet to store his toiletries. He hopped in the shower, quickly washing himself for the day. Once clean enough, he dried himself, and brushed his teeth whilst brushing his hair at the same time. Once satisfied again, he left the bathroom and headed for his drawers to find some clothes for the day, taking another glance at his snoozing Pokemon to ensure he hadn't woken them. Once underpants and socks were put on, Ash decided on a pair of navy jeans and a blue and white t-shirt, before leaving his room and heading downstairs.

Ash ended up looking in the fridge for something for breakfast. His mother, Delia, had gone into town. She wouldn't go around every store and buy the most expensive items in them, she merely went out for the fresh air. Ash's above mentioned father was still at work. Fortunately, Ash could cook quite well for someone his age, especially when it came to his favourite breakfast: Pancakes. He grabbed the pancake batter out of the fridge, and set about making breakfast. Lacing a frying pan with the batter, in mere minutes (and a quick toss in the air) the batter had hardened into a perfectly cooked pancake. He grabbed a plate, and effortlessly slid the pancake onto the plate, before dousing it in lemon juice and sugar. As Ash was about to sit down at the kitchen table, cutlery in hand, when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from the stairs. Looking, Ash realised the smell of food had woken his Pokemon up, as Mudkip and Pikachu came trotting down the stairs, and Pidgey was flapping above them.

"Guess you want feeding too huh?" The trio of Pokemon cried in agreement. Ash smiled, before heading over to kitchen cabinet where his Pokemon food was stored, and grabbing 3 bowls and 3 different containers of food. Pouring each container of food into separate bowls, Ash brought the trio of food bowls to where he was about to eat, and set them on the floor, where his Pokemon wasted no time digging into their breakfast. Ash, now seated and with nothing else to do presently, began devouring his breakfast. It didn't take long for the group to finish their food, to which Ash brought his plate, cutlery and Pokemon food bowls to the sink to wash up. As he was washing up, Pikachu's ears twitched, before realising he had just heard a "BEEP" sound coming from upstairs.

"Pika Pika" Ash turned his head to see Pikachu waving his hand, trying to get Ash's attention.

"Hmm? What it is Pikachu?"

"Pika Pikapikachu" Pikachu pointed upstairs.

"You heard something upstairs?" Pikachu nodded. "Ok I'll check it out."

Fortunately, Ash just finished washing up, so he headed straight upstairs. Figuring the noise came from his room, he checked that first. Pushing open the partial opened door, Ash saw no change in his room. _"Ok…so it wasn't anything falling down…nor was anything moved."_ The next candidate in Ash's mind was his phone, given it makes a "BEEP" noise whenever a notification is received on it. he picked it up and switched it on, and sure enough, a notification popped up on screen:

**Message received - PokeMessenger**

Ash read the notification, before accessing the PokeMessenger app on his phone. Truth be told, he hadn't used it in a while, then again he hadn't had a reason given his apparent social status. He quickly tapped on the message icon, bringing him to another screen which showed previous conversations with people. However, the most recent one was what caught Ash's eye:

**Message received 8:06AM**

Dawn Berlitz: Hi Ash, I dunno whether you still use this or not, but if you do get this, can I ask you something?

Ash looked at her message status, which showed Dawn was still online. He quickly typed out a message and sent it.

**Ash Ketchum: Yeah I still use this, don't know why though. Yeah sure, what is it?**

The message sent was delivered in a couple of seconds. Soon it showed that Dawn had seen the message, and the icon appearing of three dots appearing and disappearing showed up.

**Dawn Berlitz: Really? I was wondering whether or not I could possibly hang out with you? I mean, its ok if you don't want to.**

**Ash Ketchum: Yeah pretty much. Sure its fine, don't worry.**

**Dawn Berlitz: Are you sure?**

**Ash Ketchum: Of course :)**

**Dawn Berlitz: Ok, can we do some studying together? I think there are a few areas I could use some help on…**

**Ash Ketchum: Sure, where do you want to do it?**

There was a slight pause before Dawn answered.

**Dawn Berlitz: I guess at my house? If thats ok with you?**

Ash: Yeah thats fine, tell me where you live and I'll be over later on today

Dawn sent Ash her address, and to his surprise, she lived quite close to him. Because of that, he told her he would be over in about 10 minutes, to which Dawn agreed. Shutting his phone off, Ash stuffed it in his pocket and began picking up various text books and a writing pad with notes on it before stuffing them into his bag and hoisting it on his back. Leaving his room once again, Ash made his way back downstairs, where his Pokemon were chatting amongst themselves.

"Guys?" Ash called out, gaining the attention of the trio of Pokemon who looked at him curiously. "I just got something from Dawn…you remember Dawn yeah?" The Pokemon trio nodded before Ash continued, "Right, well I'm about to head put and meet her at her house, she needs help revising some stuff, I was wondering whether you'd want to come with me?" All 3 Pokemon cried out in agreement, each one welcoming the chance to meet Ash's new friend again. Ash smiled at the response he got. "Ok guys, then lets go, I told her I'd be there in 10 minutes." The 3 Pokemon again cried out in acknowledgement, before following their trainer, who had his bag slung around his shoulders and was about to open the front door.

"Oh shoot." Ash suddenly exclaimed, before bolting back upstairs, whilst yelling back to obviously confused Pokemon: "Hang on, I almost forgot your Poke balls!" All 3 Pokemon sweat dropped upon hearing this, their trainer could get too energetic sometimes. After successfully finding his Pokemon's Poke balls, Ash dashed back downstairs, whilst attaching all 3 to his belt. "Got them." He exclaimed, before putting on a pair of trainers, grabbing a spare door key, and made his way out of the house, with his Pokemon close behind.

* * *

The walk over to Dawn's house was uneventful: It was sunny and quite warm, so Pikachu and Mudkip walked with Ash, whilst Pidgey stretched her wings by flying above them. The streets were quiet, but Ash had expected that, given it wasn't even 9 AM yet. It didn't take long for the group the arrive at the address Dawn had sent Ash: the house itself wasn't a luxurious affair, it was your a-typical house, with pure white paint coating the exterior and a black door shadowed by a wooden porch.

After calling for Pidgey to stop flying, Ash walked up to the black door, which had glass embedded all down the middle of the door. Pidgey was perched on his shoulder and Pikachu and Mudkip walking on the floor. Seeing no obvious door bell, Ash rapped his knuckles against the solid wood. He didn't hear anything for a few seconds, but a shout of; "HANG ON, I'M COMING!" betrayed any doubt that the house was empty. Ash waited a few more seconds before he could make out the blue haired girl in the door's glass unlocking the door.

"Hiya." Dawn greeted Ash once she had opened the door, giving him a welcoming smile at the same time. She was wearing a casual red and black plaid shirt, blue jeans and black flats.

"Hey." Ash responded, matching Dawn's smile as motioned to his Pokemon. "I er…hope you don't mind but I brought my Pokemon along." Dawn shook her head in response.

"It's fine." She simply stated, before pointing her thumb behind her, motioning to inside her house. "Piplup and Buneary are out of their Poke balls anyway. Besides…" A sly smile grew on her face, before adopting a sarcastic tone, "It's not like we're gonna get distracted, you know, with 5 Pokemon running about"

Ash sniggered upon hearing this, albeit he was also quite surprised at the comment: Dawn had never been obviously sarcastic for the sake of comedy. Then again, all the times Ash spoke to Dawn was in school, meaning the chance to speak to her like this had never occurred. Wanting to keep the bravado going, Ash turned to his Pokemon to address them: "You heard the nice lady, don't distract us too much. Oh, and try not to break anything yeah?" Dawn giggled at Ash's addressment to his Pokemon, whilst Pikachu and Mudkip merely gave him an amused look to say: "Like we would." before racing off into Dawn's house. Pidgey remained perched on Ash's shoulder, even though she had met Dawn and her Pokemon, she was not as outgoing as Pikachu or Mudkip, and preferred remaining within close proximity to her trainer.

Both humans chuckled at the Pokemons enthusiasm, whilst Ash gave Pidgey a small stroke on her small head, with the tiny bird squawking in enjoyment. Dawn gestured for Ash to enter, which he gladly accepted, and duo (plus Pidgey) found themselves in the hallway.

"So…where are we studying?"

Dawn thought for a second at Ash, presumably stating the obvious from his perspective, before settling on the living room. "In their." She pointed to a room on their left, before quickly adding "That is if you okay in there."

Ash turned to face her, giving her a calming smile. "Yeah why wouldn't it be?"

Dawn held her arm (with her other hand) and looked at floor, before shyly admitting, "I d..don't want to make you uncomfortable, I mean I feel like I've dragged you here on such short notice, I don't wanna be anymore of a burden."

Ash looked at Dawn for a second. "In all fairness you are right about the uncomfortable bit…" Dawn tensed up on hearing that, gripping her arm tighter, and taking in a sharp breath. "Let me finish. Yeah I'm uncomfortable, but thats not because of you, thats because this whole thing about meeting up with people ain't exactly what I'm used to, remember my 'social status'?" Dawn slowly nodded, before slowing lifting her head up to look at Ash, albeit with her hand still clenched to her other arm. "And being burden? Dawn there are two reasons you're not being a burden." Ash held up his hand and pointed one finger up. "First, from an academic standing, revising with you also tests me on my knowledge, given I'm probably gonna end up helping with things." Ash then raised a second finger. "Second, if it were Drew or one of them idiotic sods I was helping, I probably would consider it a burden. However, the fact it is you, a person I hold nothing against and actually get along with quite well, it's not a burden."

Dawn's eyes widened at Ash's points, well they mainly did for the second reason. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks. "Y..you really mean it?" She probed, wondering if the male teen only said that to make her feel better.

"I really do." Ash emphasised, further proving it by locking his brown eyes onto her sapphire ones, to show he was not lying.

Dawn's blush deepened somewhat looking into Ash's eyes, whilst a small smile crept up on her face. Finally deciding to start what both had came for, Dawn brushed past Ash and made her into the living room, before stopping in the door way. "Come on then." Dawn called out, looking at Ash once again, before fully entering the living room. "Lets put you idea that I'm not a burden to the test shall we?"

Ash smirked, again quite surprised at Dawn's sudden change in behaviour. Though she seemed distant on the surface, Ash knew there was a different girl buried within, hell what she had just said was proof of that. Deciding to match her sudden behaviour, Ash called back.

"You're on."

* * *

The next few hours flew by without either teen realising. Despite Dawn's original plan to just cover some aspects, they ended up going over every bit of every subject. Surprisingly for Dawn, she'd discovered she could keep up relatively well with Ash, and hold her own when dealing with the questions Ash threw at her. Ash of course had no problems with the material and the questions, which was a given since he had revising the material for months. The two also worked really well together, a strong untapped chemistry if you will: despite focusing on revising, they still found time to have laugh, which actually helped in the long run.  
Currently, the trio were still in Dawn's living room, just quickly going over a few last bits. Pidgey stuck with the two humans throughout their entire session, mainly because she wanted to near her trainer, but she was also quite curious about learning more about Dawn and about what ever the two humans were doing (yes she knew she'd never need to learn it, but she wanted to anyway). Whilst this was going own, the group of 4 Pokemon; Pikachu, Mudkip, Piplup and Buneary, spent the time either talking amongst each other or playing, occasionally making an appearance to their trainers.

"Ok, after all of this…" Ash addressed the bluenette, whilst closing his text book for what he assumed would be last time for today. "You should be fine and dandy for these exams, hell you could give me a run for my money."

Dawn raised an eyebrow at this, before confidently 'correcting' Ash. "Could? No no Ash, I will, you'll see"

Ash laughed upon hearing that. "I guess I was right, you weren't a burden after all." He implied at Dawn, who merely pouted a bit, causing Ash to laugh harder.

"In all seriousness though…" The male teen got out, after calming down from his laughter. "Assuming you don't go in there expecting to know every answer, and use my tips, you should be fine for these exams." He gave a thumbs up to the bluenette.

"Not only do I know I'm ready, I feel ready Ash." Dawn merely stated, before giving the male teen a soft smile. "Thanks Ash, having you here…it's helped me a lot."

"No problem." Ash merely said, before standing up and stretching his body. Sitting on a chair for hours in the same positions had rendered the male teen's muscles stiff. Noticing what Ash was doing, Dawn followed suit and stretched as well, she felt stiff after all the revising. The tiny bird Pokemon remained perched on the chair Ash sat in: she had flown around for a bit early and didn't feel in anyway stiff.

"I think we could do with doing something else for a bit." Ash suggested, then went on to elaborate when Dawn stared at him. "If we focus too much on this…" He gestured towards the pile of textbooks that had congregated on the living room floor. "…We're gonna end up with nothing going in. Even if we don't end up going back to this, I think we've earned a break."

Dawn, finding no reason to argue, completely agreed with Ash. She had worked hard and needed to relax for a bit. However just then an idea came into her mind, a idea that should help both of them bring their mind off their studies for a bit.

"Hey Ash?" Ash turned his attention back onto Dawn, nodding his head slightly to allow her to continue. "I was wondering…given how you said we need something to distract us from revising… we have a practice b..battle?"

Ash's eyes widened in surprise at hearing this; was Dawn, the same girl that only a few days ago said didn't like battling (or battling in front of people) asking for him to battle her? The surprise soon turned into sudden adrenaline. "A battle you say?" Ash grinned at the bluenette, who in turn gave him a somewhat nervous grin of her own. "You're on."

With that the duo, with Pidgey again perched on Ash's shoulder, made their way outside to Dawn's back yard (I'm not American, but it sounds better than garden). Ash wondered whether the back yard would be big enough to hold a Pokemon battle, but upon looking, it was definitely big enough, even with the trees, shrubs and other various plants. Both trainers walked up to the makeshift arena and called out for their Pokemon, wanting to assemble their battling forces for the upcoming battle.

Mudkip and Pikachu ran up to Ash, and lined up in front of him. Pidgey also came off her trainers shoulder and joined her two friends. Ash bent down so he was closer to his Pokemon, before thinking about his choice.

Whilst this went on, Piplup and Buneary stood in front of their trainer, whilst Dawn was deep in thought about her choice, all the while balancing her inner emotions; she was scared and nervous, but she WANTED to do this, she wanted to prove to herself she could do this, that she could hold her own in a Pokemon battle, even if it would be a one sided battle.

Both trainers finally decided on their choice, before manoeuvring into the trainer boxes on opposite sides of the battlefield. Noticing each other was standing, Ash called out to Dawn.

"I suppose I'll show off my choice first. Pidgey, you're up!"

The usually shy bird squawked in acknowledgement, and made her way onto the battlefield. She stood on the ground as apposed to taking to the skies, not wanting to use up energy before the fight even begun, and anticipated whom her opponent would be.

Dawn took in a breath to steel her nerves, before revealing her choice. "Piplup, lets go!" The penguin Pokemon cried in acknowledgement, before waddling onto the battlefield. Unlike his avian opponent, Piplup had to settle for a grounded stance. He was not bothered however; flight or no flight, he was going to do his best and be one heck of a opponent. Even if he lost, he was gonna down swinging.

Both Pokemon locked eyes, feeling the intensity and determination coming from each other. Both couldn't help but let smirks grow on their faces, both knowing that this battle was gonna be good. Ash, being the more accustomed battler, was already ready to begin, but held back in respect to his opponent, who he assumed would need a few moments to collect herself.

"Oh Dawn, you can have the first move whenever you're ready." Ash called out over the battlefield.

Dawn thanked Ash. She suddenly felt pumped and ready for the battle, the same feeling she had before the 2 on 2 battle a few days ago. This time however, she wasn't gonna let this energy slip by. She was going to embrace it, and prove she could do this. Taking one last breath, Dawn gave the first command, therefore jumping into unknown of the battle.

"PIPLUP BUBBLEBEAM!"

Responding immediately to her trainer's command, Piplup unleashed a torrent of bubbles at his opponent, hoping to land the first hit of the match and deal some damage. Of course Pidgey, and her trainer, weren't gonna let that happen easily.

"PIDGEY TAKE TO THE SKIES!" Pidgey didn't need to be told twice, as she launched off of the ground and raised her altitude, rendering the bubblebeam missed as it hit the arena floor.

"PIPLUP BUBBLEBEAM AGAIN!" Somewhat angered at his first attempt being dodged, Piplup fired off another bubblebeam, fully intending to actually hit his target this time.

"PIDGEY SWOOP LEFT THEN FIRE A GUST!" With sharp movements, the tiny bird Pokemon manoeuvring away from the onslaught of bubbles, before flapping her wings to create a strong gust, dealing some damage to the penguin Pokemon. Dawn gritted her teeth, clearly getting into this battle.

"PIPLUP USE BUBBLE!" Whilst Pidgey was still using Gust, Piplup managed to fire off a few bubbles, which scored a hit against his avian opponent, which was made apparent by the bird squawking out in pain and Gust stopping. Shaking off what pain it could, Pidgey continued staying airborne, locking eyes with her opponent once more.

"PIDGEY GET IN CLOSE, USE QUICK ATTACK!" Ash decided a purely ranged battle wouldn't go in his favour, so decided to mix things up a bit. Pidgey became enveloped a white light and lunged towards Piplup at an increased speed.

"PIPLUP MEET IT HEAD ON, USE POUND!" Piplups fin became surrounded in white energy, and the penguin shot off to meet Pidgey head on. The two Pokemon came closer and closer, until it looked like there going to collide with each other.

Ash had however planned for this. "PIDGEY BANK UP WHILST USING WING ATTACK!" The small avian Pokemon waited till the last second before twisting her body, so that her right wing was almost touching the ground, before channeling energy into said wing and sharply increasing her altitude, resulting in Piplup receiving a powered up blow, thanks to the quick attack, right under its chin (like an uppercut). This caused the penguin to be launched into the air, only to come crashing back down on the floor.

"PIPLUP! Are you okay?" Worry edged into Dawn's voice, yet at the same time she knew Piplup could take a few hits, thanks to her last battle. Piplup managed to get to his feet, shaking off the dizzy feeling to hopefully become more alert, and called out to signify it was ok. Dawn thought for a few moments, going in close range was dangerous down to Pidgey's speed, whilst sticking to range was also risky as Pidgey could easily evade any attack. She figured she would have to land a solid hit against the bird, then follow up with quick damage. "PIPLUP BUBBLEBEAM GO!"

Again, the penguin Pokemon unleashed a torrent of bubbles at his opponent. Ash called out for Pidgey to dodge, which she easily did.

"BUBBLE GO!" Piplup then fired fewer, but more faster, bubbles towards his opponent. Not given any time to dodge, Pidgey took the full brunt of the attack. She didn't crash into the ground, but she lost some altitude from that attack.

"NOW PIPLUP POUND!" The penguin again shot off towards the tiny bird, with one of his fins surrounded in white energy.

"MEET IT HEAD ON WING ATTACK GO!" Despite taking a painful hit, Pidgey channeled her energy into her wing once more and launched towards Piplup. Fin met wing as the two attacks collided, with each Pokemon being forced back from the attack. Despite looking like a stalemate, Piplup took some damage from that exchange. Despite the pain however, Piplup soundly lunged forward at Pidgey again, however this time both his fins where enveloped in a white light, both delivering two strong blows to Pidgey. The two blows forced Pidgey back even further, who had not expected a follow up attack that quickly.

Dawn stood dumbfounded at witnessing this attack, she didn't remember Piplup having a move that could do that, though it looked quite similar to pound, Piplup had never used a double pond before. Seeing the confusion on her face, Ash called out to her. "Dawn, the move Piplup just used is called Double Hit. It's like pound, only you attack twice in rapid succession. Piplup can't normally learn that attack, but it appears to be an unlocked egg move" Dawn nodded at Ash's explanation, before becoming more confused at 'unlocked egg move'.

"Ash what do you mean by 'unlocked egg move'?"

Ash thought for a second, before realising that explaining it during a battle wouldn't be a good idea. "I'll explain afterwards, okay?" Dawn only nodded. "Now, shall we continue?" Again Dawn nodded, so Ash gave out a command.

"PIDGEY GUST AGAIN!" Pidgey got up and back in the air, before flapping her wings once more, creating a strong wind.

"PIPLUP BUBBLEBEAM!" Again a torrent of bubbles came rocketing towards Pidgey. Ash smirked however, a plan beginning to formulate in his mind.

"CANCEL THE GUST AND CORKSCREW 'ROUND THE BUBBLES!" Pidgey quickly canceled the gust, before flying towards the bubbles, and began spinning around them with her back always facing the bubbles. Dawn was amazed at the grace of which Pidgey managed to circle around Piplup's bubblebeam. However it was gonna take more than amazement at this point to distract her.

"PIPLUP WAIT FOR IT TO GET CLOSE THEN DOUBLE HIT!" Piplup stopped firing the bubblebeam and allowed his two fins to glow with energy. Little did either of them know, Ash had hoped Dawn would go with double hit, or a similar close range attack, and a smirk grew on his face. Pidgey continued traveling towards Piplup, with the latter almost in attacking range, before Ash made his move.

"PIDGEY BANK LEFT, THEN CIRCLE ROUND WITH QUICK ATTACK!" Pidgey did just that, narrowly avoiding the first of Piplup's double hits by banking left, then activating quick attack, letting her body being enveloped in a white light, and banked right so she would end up behind Piplup.

Dawn, only now realising the danger, called out quickly to Piplup. "PIPLUP BEHIND YOU!" Piplup managed to turn his body, only to see the tiny bird traveling at high speeds towards him. Ash, wanting to finish the battle, called out his command.

"WING ATTACK NOW!" Channeling energy into her wing, Pidgey slammed into Piplup at high speeds with her powered up wing. This caused the penguin to be forced backwards, doing several tumbles, before finally coming to a stop with swirls in his eyes. The last attack had been too much for the penguin.

Dawn rushed towards Piplup, memories of the last fight coming into mind as tears threatened to fall; the adrenaline had worn off and Dawn was now worried about her Pokemons health. Buneary too rushed towards her fallen friend, with both females making it to Piplup at the same time as he regained consciousness, with the penguin Pokemon reassuring the both of them that he was fine. During this, Ash had made his way across the field, towards Dawn.

"I'm sorry about that Dawn…I got a bit too carried away there." Ash apologised with a apologetic look, wary of how Dawn would react. Said women turned to face him, and to Ash's surprise, she was actually smiling, a big difference from her reaction to her last battle.

"It's fine Ash." Dawn said, still smiling. "Unlike what happened with May and her Torchic…" Dawn choked a bit as that memory flashed into her mind, tearing her away from looking at Ash. "You weren't torturing Piplup, nor were you taking great pleasure at causing damage to him either." Dawn returned her glaze back to Ash, the latter was somewhat speechless at Dawns answer. "And ultimately I asked you for the battle, and even if I didn't win, that shouldn't mean I can't have fun. Yeah I was worried about Piplup, but if anything that worrying should motivate me to become better at battling." Dawn finished her little explanation by looking Ash straight in the eyes to prove she was serious.

Ash kept quiet for a few moments, before smiling back at Dawn. He was about to respond to her with words, however he was interrupted by a certain Pokemons energetic cry.  
"PIDDDGGEYYY!"

The tiny bird Pokemon didn't know what was overcoming her, all of a sudden she could feel immense strength building from within. She was pretty sure she hadn't felt like this before the battle, what was so different now? Why had this battle caused her to feel so weird? Out of curiosity, Pidgey looked down at her shiny coloured body, wondering if there were any external differences. To her surprise, it seemed like her entire body was being covered by a white light, one similar to her Quick Attack, only it seemed to be purer and radiating more energy in nature. With out warning, the light suddenly grew in intensity, earning a surprised squark from the bird. All eyes were on her at this point, both human and Pokemon alike, as they wondered what was going on and why Pidgey was suddenly enveloped in a light. All wondered…but Ash didn't. He knew exactly what was happening to Pidgey, and he couldn't feel more proud of the tiny bird Pokemon, of his Pokemon.

The strength feeling within Pidgey sudden grew tenfold, as it began to enveloped her entire body: from her head to the tips of her wings, she could feel it all over her body. Her eyes were forced shut at the now blinding white light, yet at the same time, her body began to change; her torso began to grow larger, her head too grew in size, as did her wings. Size wasn't the only difference Pidgey could feel; her body felt lighter despite the obvious increase in size, and her wings felt more powerful, despite not even using them yet.

Her eyes opened, the blinding light finally dying down, and looked at those staring at her. Tapping back into her shy personality, the female bird immediately looked down at the floor, inevitably taking her first glance at her new body. It was bigger than before, though the colour of it had not changed. Glancing at her wings, she noted they indeed increased in size. Shaking her head as she felt somewhat dizzy, the bird soon took to the skies in an astounding speed, trying out her new wings. As expected during the transformation, they were indeed much more powerful. After circling the skies a few time, the bird landed back on the ground, before letting out a new, evolved, cry.

"PIDGEEEOOOTTOOO!"

Everyone had watched the entire thing unfold, and all bar Ash were still shocked at what happened, their bodies numb and minds dumbfounded at the event that had just occurred. Whilst everyone else was frozen in shock, Ash walked towards his 'new' bird. "Pidgey…This is amazing, you've evolved into Pidgeotto!"

_'So thats what happened.'_ Was the collective thoughts of 4 Pokemon and one bluenette. None had seen an evolution happening before, which explained why they were so surprised at witnessing one. Everyone was so engrossed in what happened they failed to notice someone else, who had seen the entire thing.

"Thats some Pokemon you have there…"

Everyone present suddenly jumped out in shocked, even the normally calm and composed Ash couldn't jump a bit, and their heads snapped to where the voice came from: a women standing a few feet away from the battlefield. When Ash saw her, he couldn't help but think she looked like a older version of Dawn, however this women had her blue her up in a bun (AN: I'm not sure how her hair is normally). She wore a long sleeved white shirt, a red apron, blue 3/4 trousers a and pink house slippers. Also noteworthy was the cat like Pokemon perched on her shoulder, a grey feline with an especially long tail that curled into a spring, and seemed to be looking curiously at the group in front of it, especially Ash and his Pokemon.

Dawn, only just recovering from enough shock to function her mouth, spoke out to older women. "M..mom? W..what a..re you doing here?" she nervously finished, only just realising what the women would probably think about the situation. The older women, now identified as Dawn's mother, flashed a sarcastic smile in response.

"Gee I wonder Dawn, what would I, your mother, be doing here, at MY house. I mean it sounds insane doesn't it?" The sarcastic smile turned into a coy smile, the older women clearly getting a kick out of embarrassing her daughter as she kept her gaze on the young girl. Said daughter was currently taking a keen interest in her feet and started fiddling with her hands, as the younger female had her head directed down, with a detectable blush apparent on her cheeks.

Dawn's mother then shifted her gaze onto Ash, the latter matching her gaze curiously, as if wondering what this women was going to do with him. The older Berlitz's coy smile suddenly doubled, as she reverted her gaze back onto her daughter. "And besides…" One of the mother's eyes raised in amusement. "…What are you doing bringing boys back to our house and being alone with them?" Dawn stopped playing with her hands and instead used them to cover her face that was heating up from embarrassment. Never in a million years did Dawn, and her mother to that extent, expect to be in this position, and yet here she was.

_"At least it can't get any worse."_ A voice in the back of Dawn's mind suddenly called out, and Dawn found herself agreeing with that voice.

Oh how wrong she and her inner voice was.

"Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against you being alone with a boy, but you could've at least warned me incase I…'Interrupted' anything." Behind the shielded face, Dawn's eyes now widened at what her mother was implying. Before even realising, the younger Berlitz was looking at the older one, albeit with a heavy blush on her cheeks. She stole a quick glance of Ash, who was still standing there with Pidgeotto shyly nuzzling her new head in his hand. She noted he didn't seem that embarrassed nor surprised, only having a stoic and calm look on his face. Either he was too dense to figure out what her mother was implying, which Dawn seriously doubted, or he understood exactly what was being implied, and was masking his emotions well.

"N-n-n-no-no." Dawn tried to utter out, but with being flustered by her mothers 'accusations' she was failing miserably. Fortunately, Ash spoke in Dawn's place.

"Mrs…Berlitz? Nothing like that happened. Dawn messaged me earlier in the day asking for help for the exams coming up. We've spent the entire time revising…well bar from our little battle we just had." Ash scratched the back of his head sheepishly with his free hand. Both Berlitzs' looking at Ash in recognition, with the older one looking directly into Ash's eyes for any sign of lying or backing down. After sensing he was speaking the truth, the mother figure looked at both teens before letting off a soft smile.

"I know that's what happened. I saw the mountain of books pilled up in my living room and put 2 and 2 together." She started, before turning her attention to male teen again. "And I assume you're Ash? My daughter speaks highly of you as both a battler and as a intellect." Ash sent Dawn and knowing smirk before replying.

"Yep I'm Ash, pleasure to meet you Mrs Berlitz."

The older woman shook her head at being called 'Mrs Berlitz'. "Please Ash, call me Johanna, Mrs Berlitz makes me feel old."

Ash chuckled softly at that, almost half expecting Johanna to use a rebuke like that. "Ok, will do."

Johanna smiled at Ash's friendliness before addressing both teens again. "I must say, that was a good battle. Brings back some of my old memories. back when I was your age. I'm quite impressed by you Dawn, given I know you're not the most avid battler." Dawn smiled sheepishly at her mothers praise, whilst a now recovered Piplup also gave a cry of agreement. Johanna smiled at her daughters antics, before addressing Ash with a serious tone. "Ash this might sound a bit odd but would you mind having a battle with me?"

Ash was somewhat surprised at the older women's request, but didn't speak as he assumed Johanna would explain herself. His assumption turned out to be correct. "The reason I ask is because I enjoyed your battle, you seem to know your way around a battle. Plus…" She paused, before adopting a guilty smile "…I wanted to see whether you are as good a battler as my daughter made you out to be. Hopefully I still have it in me to be a worthy opponent in your eyes Ash, I used to be a good battler and coordinator, and while I've not had a full fledge battle in a while, I don't think I've lost my edge."

Ash smirked at the potential for another fight, especially since he'd be up against a more battle harden veteran. "…Johanna, I hope you're ready for a hell of a fight, I accept."

Johanna smirked, then flashed a playful smile. "Let us begin then, I don't want you holding back on me ok?"

"The same to you…in spite of that, shall we do battle with our first Pokemon?"

"I see no reason not to." Johanna nodded, making her way to where Dawn had stood for her fight. Ash too had returned to his side, with Dawn and her Pokemon occupying the sidelines, eager to watch the upcoming battle.

As with the previous fight, Pikachu, Mudkip and Pidgeotto lined up infront of Ash, albeit with the latter feeling somewhat tired after her fight. "Right…Mudkip you're up for battle?" Said mudfish Pokemon responded happily, whilst the electric mouse next to him looked flabergasted.

"Pika Pikapi!"

Ash shifted his gaze onto Pikachu, understanding what the mouse was trying to get across, and gave him a soft smile. "Buddy, I'll use you the next time I battle ok?" Pikachu nodded in agreement, before he and Pidgeotto made their way over to Dawn, also intent on watching the battle. With that dealt with, Ash nodded to Mudkip, who waddled onto the battlefield. Johanna looked at Mudkip carefully from across the battlefield, before the cat on her shoulder leapt forward in the air, landing a few metres in front of Johanna and positioned itself, eyeing the mudfish Pokemon.

Ash eyed the cat carefully, trying to formulate a possible tactic. _"Hmm…unless I'm mistaken…that Pokemon is a Glameow…which is a normal type. Right, gonna have to be careful with this one, that typing is notorious for diverse movesets, and with Johanna's experience, who knows what that cat can do…" _Ash thought for a few more moments, finally deciding to test the waters to see what the feline could do, before trying to make a big tactic.

"You can have the first move Ash."

"Thank you." A breath was taken in before going into battle mode. "MUDKIP WATER GUN!"

Almost like the mudfish Pokemon had anticipated the move, Mudkip shot a fast and powerful torrent of water from its mouth towards Glameow.

"GLAMEOW USE SHADOW CLAW!"

The feline hastily gathered dark energy in its left paw, before using it to slash the incoming water, completely dissipating the attack.

_"Should've known it couldn't be that easy, lets try a different approach." _"MUDKIP WATER PULSE THEN FOLLOW UP WITH ICE SHARD!"

A blue sphere of aquatic energy was formed in Mudkip's mouth before he fired it off at Glameow, and quickly followed up by firing several ice shards from his mouth.

"GLAMEOW SHADOW BALL, THEN USE YOUR TAIL TO GET AIRBORNE!"

Similar to when it used shadow claw, the feline built up a concentration of dark energy in its mouth, forming a purple sphere, before firing it off in the direction on the water pulse. Whilst the two spheres collided and combined into a giant, beautifully coloured violet sphere that Dawn couldn't help but be mesmerised by, the shards of ice had continued their flight path and ended up puncturing the giant sphere, resulting in each shard being surrounded by violet coloured energy. Glameow attempted to get airborne, unfortunately for the feline the ice shards where faster, and Glameow was pelted by the shards, earning a yelp of pain, and forcing it back.

"Not bad Ash, however its gonna take more than that to bring us down." Johanna smirked, deciding now to play her trump card. "GLAMEOW SHOCK WAVE!"

Ash's eyes widened upon hearing that. _"An electric type move? Uh oh…thats gonna hurt Mudkip badly." _Glameow had been charging electric energy during Ash's thought process, and was almost ready to fire it. _"Can't dodge it…we're gonna have to tank it!"_ "MUDKIP COVER YOURSELF WITH MUD SLAP!"

Not wanting the super effective move to hit, Mudkip happily obliged on launching a weak powered mud slap on itself, with both trainer and Pokemon hoping it would dilute the hit. Glameow fired off the shock wave, which crackled off in the air with unparalleled velocity. Mudkip braced for the pain when the electricity came close to him, and cried in pain when it did hit. Thankfully the ground type move had diluted the electricity, meaning Mudkip would've experienced much more pain had he remained 'uninsulated'.

"GLAMEOW HONE CLAWS INTO FURY SWIPES!" The more experienced veteran trainer, who was getting back into her 'grove', wasn't going to give Ash time to recover. The feline immediately responded by sharping its claws, resulting in an attack and accuracy booster, then shot off towards the still recovering mud fish Pokemon. To other trainers, this would be a deadly situation, Ash however couldn't stop the grin from growing on his face; Johanna had unknowingly made a mistake, and Ash was going to capitalise.

"MUDKIP AQUA TACKLE!" Ash threw a clenched fist up with his command. Mudkip sprang into action, using the initial momentum gained by both aqua jet and tackle to propel itself forwards whilst surrounding his entire body with water. Glameow, who had hesitated at the move coming towards it, could do nothing to stop to aquatic bullet from slamming into it, which sent the feline flying into air and crashing down onto the ground.

Johanna was gawking at the current events, she was pretty sure Mudkips' couldn't learn aqua jet, and yet this one had managed to combine it with another impact move. Despite this, she couldn't help but smile; she hadn't had a battle this good in ages.

"GLAMEOW SHOCK WAVE, AIM FOR THE WATER!"

Though dizzy from the attack, Glameow shook it off, and quickly charged and fired off the shock wave. Ash didn't even have time to call for Mudkip to dodge, as the electricity traveled towards the aqua jet, and became conducted into the water itself, trapping Mudkip in electrical torture.

_"Mudkips' not gonna last much longer…as much as I don't want to…I'm gonna need to utilise the electricity." _"MUDKIP HANG IN THERE BUDDY, USE FROST BREATH WHILE SPINNING!"

Barely enduring the pain the shock wave was continuously causing, Mudkip's gills twitched before he released chilling air from his mouth, freezing the tip of the aqua jet, before he spun his entire body caused the once jet of water to turn into an icicle drill with electricity still flowing in the water within. Dawn's mouth dropped on seeing this, both her and her two Pokemon were in awe; if witnessing violet coloured ice shards was amazing, there was no words to describe the ice drill Ash had created. Johanna was also impressed by the turn around Ash had created, even more so by using the super effective electric attack in his own move. However, she would not be so easily deterred.

"GLAMEOW HONE CLAWS AGAIN THEN MEET IT HEAD ON WITH A SHADOW BALL INFUSED RETURN!"

Glameow hastily sharpened its claws again, further increasing its attack and accuracy power, before charging a shadow ball quickly in its mouth, which once charged to the necessary level, Glameow surrounded itself in an intense bright light. Both Ash and Dawn had to shield the eyes initially at how bright it was. Glameow then released the shadow ball whilst charging straight into it, infusing the bright light with the dark shadows. With a cry of its name, Glameow finally charged at Mudkip and the ice drill. Both attacks met head on, resulting in a massive explosion, with a large wind stream resulting from it. All none battlers had to physically stop themselves from being blown away from said wind stream. In the eye of the explosion, the situation was far from the same; both feline and mudfish battled for control, trying to overpower one another. Whilst Mudkip had the combined power of water, normal, ice and electric typing in his attack, Glameow had doubled its attack power and was in control of a shadow ball infused return which, unbeknownst to Ash and Mudkip, was at maximum power because of the feline's happiness with her trainer.

The duo struggled for some time, neither giving an inch to the other, despite the strain of the struggle that was affecting both Pokemon. After what seemed liked an eternity to the struggling duo Mudkip finally faltered, the electricity in the water proving too much for the water type to endure. Sensing her opponent to be fading, Glameow continued pressing until it managed to overpower Mudkip, sending the mudfish flying backwards, resulting in a massive explosion and a painful impact with the floor for Mudkip. During this, neither trainer was able to see what was occurring in that fight, thanks to the lights and the resultant wind stream from the explosion given off. Thankfully, they both died down after a few tense seconds, revealing the final result of the battle: a collapsed Mudkip with swirls in its eyes, and a barely conscious, heavily panting Glameow.

With the battle over, Ash rushed towards his fallen Pokemon, and cradled him in his arms. "You did good buddy, good job." Mudkip cried out weakly as a response, which caused Ash to smile softly as he produced Mudkip's great ball. "Take a good rest now." Mudkip became enveloped in red light as it returned to its ball.

"That was great battle Ash." Johanna said as she approached the crouched trainer. Glameow had once again taken her position on Johanna's shoulder.

"I'll say, look like you still have it huh?"

Johanna looked seriously at Ash, scanning for any kind of resentment or sarcasm, after all, he had just lost a battle to her. Finding nothing that would suggest so, Johanna smiled. "Seems so…though I think I only won because I have much more experience than you."

"Give it some time, I may come for a rematch." Ash replied with a confident smile plastered on his face

Johanna laughed softly at this. "I'll be waiting for it then." With that both trainers turned to see Dawn and all the other Pokemon walking towards them.

"That was amazing!" The blue haired teen almost shouted at the human duo. Ash still retained his smile as he responded to Dawn.

"Glad to hear you enjoyed it."

Dawn nodded happily, though her face looked like she had something to ask. "You're not upset that you lost are you?"

Ash chuckled for a bit, whilst Johanna let out a happy sigh as she closed her eyes. Dawn however, looked quite confused. "Dawn, what did you say after our battle? You had fun and wanted to become stronger because of it?" Dawn nodded her head, having an idea where this was going. "The same applies to me here; sure I lost, but ultimately I lost to someone who is much more experienced in battling than me, nothing to be ashamed of there."

"He's got a point there." Johanna began to explain. "Even so…it was quite close. That ice electro drill was amazing, I've never seen anything like that before…although I am curious as to how your Mudkip knows aqua jet Ash…"

"Why, isn't it an egg move Ash?" Dawn added, half hoping he'd keep his promise of explaining egg moves, and half also wanting an answer of Mudkip's 'unique' move.

"Mudkip normally cannot learn aqua jet in any circumstance." Ash began, pausing for a bit as he tried to think of how to explain it. "Pokemon can acquire new moves in various ways; level up, TM, move tutor or as an egg move. Level up is basically what a Pokemon will naturally learn by just getting stronger and become more experienced. A TM, or Technical Machine, is a disk that allows the user to teach one of his Pokemon a certain move, for example Mudkip's water pulse was learnt via a TM. Move tutors basically allow a Pokemon to learn moves that aren't on any TM or level up. Egg moves are the most complex of the 4, they are based off certain compatible moves from a Pokemon's parents, and are unlocked when a Pokemon reaches a certain requirement, which is usually when a Pokemon gains levels and become stronger. What is different is that not all moves would be available to the same species of Pokemon. Take your Piplup Dawn, just because it unlocked double hit, it doesn't mean another Piplup would also unlock the same move, and even if another Piplup could unlock it, it wouldn't necessarily unlock that move at the same time as yours."

The younger bluenette listened intently at the explanation given to her, whilst the older bluenette was quite impressed with the male teens knowledge. After a couple of seconds, Dawn asked the obvious question. "So…where does that leave aqua jet?"

"Honestly…I don't know." Ash spoke truthfully. If it was any other people, Ash wouldn't of said anything, however he found himself trusting the two bluenettes, especially as one of them was now a good friend. "So I asked Professor Oak if he could have a lo-"

"YOU KNOW PROFESSOR OAK?"

Ash was taken back at Dawn's sudden outburst, as the female suddenly gained stars in her eyes, whilst her mother merely sighed at her daughter's outburst, although was surprised by it at the same time.

"…Yeah I know him, my parents are good friends of his, but that is beside the point. Even he was stumped when he finally examined Mudkip. Even fellow professors he had asked for assistance in explaining had no idea. It seems no-one knows how."

The two females took in Ash's 'answer'. Neither were especially satisfied with it, but they both thought Ash wasn't either. Johanna soon had a disturbing thought about this, one she wanted Ash to answer.

"Ash…since I assume you'll be taking on Pokemon League after high school, will they allow you to use Mudkip in official battles given its illegal move?"

Ash's responded in a serious tone, one that the older bluenette realised was underlined with worry. "I honestly don't no…if anything thats the reason I'm going to Kanto to see professor Oak again…hopefully he would've found out something, anything about this…"

"I hope he does." Johanna responded, with a smile on her face. "If not, you still have Pikachu and Pidgeotto, both of whom seem equally powerful."

Ash flashed a smile and nodded at Johanna, as a thank for brighting up that situation. Both mentioned Pokemon also gave they respective cry upon hearing their name. Everyone fell into a warm silence, until it was broken by Johanna clapping her hands.

"Well then you two." She pointed at the two teens, addressing both of them. "Now that you've had your break, isn't it time to get back to revising?"

"I think it is." Ash replied, before looking at Dawn. "Assuming you still want me to revise with you."

"Hell yeah." Dawn confidently replied, taking her mother somewhat by surprise. "I need to make sure I've retained all that you've gone through with me." Dawn furthered explained, before making he way back into her house with Buneary and a still tired Piplup following. Ash closed his eyes and smiled, before following suit and re-entering Dawn's house, only with Pikachu and Pidgeotto going with him, rather than trailing. Johanna stood there and watched everyone else went back into the house. She sighed happily once they were out of earshot.

"What has happened to my daughter?" She chuckled softly to herself. Glameow merely purred in acknowledgement, also recognising a difference in her trainers daughter. "She certainly is changing for the better…and I think…it might be because of Ash." Johanna closed her eyes, trying to picture something, before opening them, a content sigh escaping her lips. With that, she and perched cat made their way back into the house, with Johanna wondering what the future might hold for Dawn. She was certain, however, that Ash was going to be apart of it.

* * *

**Let me say, I was not expecting this chapter to be this long. I was expecting around 1.5k words, similar to the previous chapters. Still, not like I'm complaining. Also, upon some research, I've changed the rating of the story down to T, I'm 100% certain I ain't having any M rated scenes in this fic. Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter and that is was worth the wait, and hopefully I'll be able to continue writing, when I'm not working or playing video games.**

**See you next time!**


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